California Democratic Candidate for U.S. House in Special Election Sues Over Position on the Ballot and Spelling of his Name

On February 28, Ricardo “Ricky” de la Fuente, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit against the California Secretary of State over his position on the ballot in the upcoming special election for U.S. House, 34th district. California uses a random procedure to determine order of candidates on the ballot. The Secretary of State considers the candidate’s surname to be “De La Fuente”. But the candidate says is actual surname is “Fuente” and the words “de la” in front of Fuente are not part of the surname. He also argues they should not be capitalized.

The ballot lists 23 candidates. If the plaintiff’s name were determined to start with a “D”, instead of “F”, he would be three places higher in the list, because in the random drawing, “D” was chosen ahead of “F.”

The case is Ricardo de la Fuente v Alex Padilla, superior court, Sacramento, 34-2017-80002546. Thanks to Mark Seidenberg for this news.


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