California still hasn’t finished counting all the write-in votes from the June 3 primary. However, most counties have finished. In the 15th State Senate, there was a spirited contest for the Democratic nomination by two competing write-in candidates. A registered Democrat, Dennis Morris, has over 1,400 write-ins. This total will grow, because Santa Clara County write-ins still haven’t been tallied (the district includes part or all of Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara Counties). The incumbent Republican State Senator in the 15th district, Abel Maldonado, has over 800 write-ins, and of course his total will also grow when Santa Clara County reports its write-ins.
No one appeared on the Democratic primary ballot in that race. In virtually all other states that allow write-ins in primaries, the state would acknowledge that Dennis Morris is the Democratic nominee, and his name would be printed on the November ballot. But California requires write-in candidates at the primary to not only defeat all their opponents, but to attain a write-in total that is at least 1% of the vote for that office at the last general election. Therefore, under section 8605, Morris can’t be the nominee because his write-in total almost certainly won’t reach 3,689.
A strong case can be made that section 8605, mandating that large number of write-ins, violates the State Constitution. That is because in November 2004, the voters added Prop. 60 to the Constitution. It says that a party “shall not be denied the ability to place on the general election ballot the candidate who received, at the primary election, the highest vote among that party’s candidates.” In 2006, another frustrated write-in candidate attempted to use Prop. 60 to attack section 8605. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Gail Ohanesian denied him injunctive relief. She said she didn’t think the intent of the legislature (which wrote Prop. 60) was to help write-in candidates. But case law is strong that legislative intent is irrelevant when the language is clear and unambiguous. Attorneys for the plaintiff in 2006 didn’t expect that ruling (which was made from the bench), so they weren’t completely prepared to rebut the judge at that moment, and no additional hearing was ever held in the case. Any lawsuit that Dennis Morris may bring against section 8605 this year will be better prepared. Morris is aware of the potential for a lawsuit, and he may sue.
Just out of curiosity, what would the petition signature requirements have been?
I know that in Mass., to qualify as a write-in candidate, in a primary, or win in the general, one must get at least as many votes as the number of valid signatures that would have been required to get on the ballot via petition (plus beating any opponents of course)
I.e. if the petition requirement is 1,000 sigs, the person must get at least 1,000 votes to qualify as a candidate or win, depending on the election.
(If the candidate qualified for the ballot by petition, in theory only one vote is needed to win…)
This strikes me as a not totally unreasonable requirement.
ART
Elected Libertarian
California only requires 40 signatures for a candidate for district office in a partisan primary. For a statewide candidate it is 65 signatures.
According to the San Luis Obispo Tribune (June 27th version and June 26th version) and Monterey County Herald (on June 25th) stories on the 15th SD election, the source for the Democratic vote totals being 1400 for Morris to 800 for Maldonado with one county having only 1200 write-in votes cast is Maldonado’s campaign consultant, and Morris hasn’t conceded.
If one looks on the figures available on the San Luis Obispo and Santa Cruz county election websites, and combines that with what the SLO Tribune reporter apparently was told by the Santa Barbara County Registrar’s office, the actual count is closer to 1500 for Morris to 400 for Maldonado with probably around 2400 not yet counted (or counted but not yet reported). These figures also make it look unlikely that Morris will qualify under Elections Code 8605, but they don’t make it a sure thing as Maldonado’s campaign consultant claimed.
One interesting fact is that the results from San Luis Obispo county (which includes Morris’ home town of Pismo Beach) give Morris a more than three to one advantage over Maldonado among valid write-in votes, with more than half of the write-in votes cast valid, but he did much less well compared both to Maldonado and to invalid write-in votes in the other counties for which results are known. In Santa Cruz county, Morris had a three to two advantage over Maldonado among valid write-in votes, but around two-thirds of write-in votes were invalid. In Santa Barbara county, the valid votes were apparently split almost evenly, but over three-quarters of write-ins were invalid.
Re #1. The 1% requirement (in statute) is not unreasonable, though there is no reason to make a distinction between candidate’s whose name appeared on the ballot and those who were write-in candidates.
Moreover, California amended its Constitution in 2004 to explicitly permit a political party that has a primary election to have its candidate on the general election ballot.
“(b) A political party that participated in a primary election for a partisan office has the right to participate in the general election for that office and shall not be denied the ability to place on the general election ballot the candidate who received, at the primary election, the highest vote among that party’s candidates.”
Note: Paragraph (a) was in the existing Constitution and simply requires that there be primary elections for partisan offices.
It really shouldn’t matter that the reason for proposing Proposition 60, the Constitutional amendment was to derail Proposition 62 (which would have implemented a Top 2 primary). Proposition 62 was a citizen initiative, while Proposition 60 was a legislative initiative intended to dupe and confuse the voters.
Incidentally, Proposition 62 explicitly removed the 1% requirement for qualifying fot the general election ballot; and also would have greatly reduced the number of signatures needed for ballot qualification by independent candidates. Even when a candidate did not pay a filing fee, it would have been 3000 for State Senate or Congress, and 10,000 for statewide office.