Ballot Access News

On June 5, California held a top-two open primary. Although there were many independent candidates, some of whom were well-financed or who had been elected to city and county office, none of them (with one exception) placed first or second if there was also at least one Democrat and one Republican in the same race. Therefore, they cannot run in November.

The one exception was in the U.S. House race, 33rd district. Incumbent Congressman Henry Waxman, a Democrat, placed first. Second place was won by Bill Bloomfield, an independent. However, Bloomfield had been a Republican until 2011, when he switched to being an independent. During the current campaign, he was endorsed by the former state chair of the Republican Party, Duf Sundheim. Bloomfield was also endorsed by John McCain, Pete Wilson, Richard Riordan, and many other Republican Party figures.

The only Republican on the ballot in the 33rd district was Christopher David, age 25, a Ron Paul supporter with little campaign funds.

No minor party member came close to being first or second. However, after primary write-ins are counted, there will probably be a few minor party members who place second, in the seven Congressional or legislative districts in which only one person appeared on the ballot.

Other than the 33rd U.S. House race, the only independents who placed second were in three U.S. House districts, but in these three, only members of one major party had also run in those races. The three independents (other than the 33rd district) who will appear on the November ballot for U.S. House are Marilyn Singleton of Oakland in the 13th district, Terry Phillips of Bakersfield in the 23rd district, and David Hernandez of North Hollywood in the 29th district. None of these three independents has a realistic chance of winning in November, because each of them will face an opponent who polled an overwhelming majority of the vote on June 5. Singleton will face Democratic incumbent Barbara Lee, who received 80.9% of the vote in June. Phillips will face Republican incumbent Kevin McCarthy, who received 71.5% of the vote in June. Hernandez will face Democrat Tony Cardenas, who got 63.2% of the June vote.

See this story, which describes a hearing in the South Carolina Supreme Court, over whether even more Republican primary candidates should be removed from the ballot. Even though almost 200 have already been disqualified in the June 12 primary for state and local office (both Republicans and Democrats), it appears that some candidates who also did not follow the strict rules about filing a Statement of Economic Interest were allowed on the Republican primary ballots.

The Socialist Workers Party will announce its national ticket on the weekend of June 23-24. The party has already filed for James Harris for president in Colorado, but he may just be a stand-in. UPDATE: the original post said the dates would be June 9-10, but that was incorrect and has been corrected.

The Socialist Workers Party is one of only two minor parties that has had a presidential nominee in every presidential election since the end of World War II. The Prohibition Party is the other such party. At one time or another, the Socialist Workers Party has placed its presidential nominee on the ballot at least once in all but twelve states. The most populous of the twelve states in which it has never had its nominee on the ballot is Georgia. During the 1970’s, the Socialist Workers Party filed more constitutional ballot access cases than any other party. Five times, its election law cases have received full opinions in the U.S. Supreme Court. The party won two of them (Ohio and Illinois) and lost the other three (Georgia, Washington, and Texas).