On late Saturday afternoon, November 16, the legal deadline for getting the job done, California released the official November 7, 2006 election returns.

The only real news from the official returns are the write-in totals, since semi-official totals for candidates listed on the ballot had been continuously tallied, and weren’t very different from the final figures.

Socialist Action Party, which has existed since 1984, had never run a candidate for partisan office anywhere in the U.S., until 2006, when Jeff Mackler was a write-in candidate for U.S. Senate from California. He polled 108 write-ins, with the bulk from San Francisco County (38) and Alameda County (34).

The Socialist Workers Party had also filed to have write-ins for its California candidates tallied. James Harris polled 46 for Governor, and Lea Sherman polled 47 for U.S. Senate. Harris had also been the SWP’s presidential candidate in 1996, 2000, and was the stand-in presidential candidate in 2004. The SWP needed a stand-in presidential candidate in 2004 because its actual presidential candidate, Roger Calero, was not a U.S. citizen and was therefore barred from the ballot in many states.

The Socialist Workers Party had nominated 4 write-in candidates for US House, and two of them filed to have their write-ins tallied. Naomi Craine received one write-in in the 34th district, and David Arguello received four write-ins in the 51st district.

The Socialist Equality Party also had a declared write-in candidate in California. John Burton, running for US House, 29th district, received 15 write-ins.