According to someone who was at the May 20 hearing in Buell v Monterey County, the 3-judge U.S. District Court will likely reject the Voting Rights Act claim and tell the county to hold its special election on June 22. The special election is to fill the vacant State Senate seat, 15th district. The seat is empty because State Senator Abel Maldonado resigned to become Lieutenant Governor. UPDATE: see this San Jose Mercury-News story.
The case was filed by persons who worry that a special election so soon after the regularly-scheduled June 8 primary will have a very low turnout. There are four candidates on the ballot, one Democrat, one Republican, one Libertarian, and one independent. If no one gets 50%, there will be a run-off among the same four candidates in August, which does seem rather silly.
The Voting Rights Act, section 5, requires Monterey County to pre-clear all election procedure changes with the U.S. Justice Department. The county is not opening all polling places and plaintiffs said that is a change that should have been pre-cleared.
Monterey County made their first contact (by telephone) with the DOJ the day after the governor’s proclamation. They made their first formal submission, to hold the election on May 3 (6 days later), prior to the lawsuit being filed. They made supplemental submissions on May 11 and May 14. The DOJ granted preclearance for date of the early election on May 10, and for the changes in procedure today.
Monterey County certainly knows how to file for pre-clearance. They have to do it for even minor changes. Merced County has spent $1 million over the past 10 years to comply with Section 5, and is apparently ready to spend $200,000 just to seek bailout. Since Monterey County has twice the population, and lots of small cities and towns, it probably has spent twice as much.
The plaintiff’s claimed that Monterey County would reduced the number of polling places. Monterey County has filed to move two polling places, because they were not available on June 22, one from a church to a community center; the other from a lodge in a state park to a grange hall which has been used for previous elections. They received pre-clearance for these two moves today. Presumably, they have already secured the regular polling places elsewhere.
Further, Monterey County sought pre-clearance to use a manual “Assist A Voter” program in case some of their touch screens broke down (available for those with various physical and visual abilities who wish to vote unassisted). Monterey County has 400 such machines, but 300 are committed to the June 8 primary or are out of service. This leaves 100 machines for 68 polling places in SD 15 and Monterey County wanted to have a backup plan in case of breakdowns. They received pre-clearance for this as well.
Here is the real reason that the lawsuit was filed. Prop 13 requires 2/3 of elected senators to pass a budget. 2/3 of 40 is 27. 2/3 of 39 is 26.
The Democratic boys and girls on the student council at Sacramento Junior High delayed Abel Maldonado’s confirmation so that it was one week too late to hold the special primary on June 8, coincident with the statewide primary; and so if the governor were to wait for 9 (of the 14 days permitted) he could call the special general election in November. The special primary would still be in August.
It is precisely these type of hyper-partisan shenanigans that Proposition 14 is aimed at.
Louisiana confirmed its new Lieutenant Governor 2 days after Mitch Landrieu resigned to become mayor of New Orleans. California took almost six months after John Garamendi resigned to become a member of Congress before a new Lieutenant Governor was confirmed.
The governors in both states are Republicans, the resigning lieutenant governors are Democrats. The Senate in both states is Democratic-controlled. But in Louisiana the legislators are elected in an open primary similar to that which Proposition 14 provides.
Also, if Proposition 14 is approved, then special elections to fill vacancies would be Top 2, so you wouldn’t have the possibility of the same candidates contesting an election 2 months later. I agree with you that it is silly.
Candidate/incumbent rank order lists for replacements during a term.
NO more very costly special elections.
@Jim Riley- I appreciate the information you’ve provided. Do you know anything about the named plaintiffs in this case?
#3 The news articles have suggested the Democratic Party was behind the lawsuit. So they probably found the named plaintiffs, rather than the other way around, and probably wanted to avoid too direct involvement. After all, they still have to assume that the special election will go on, and Debra Bowen’s job is to oversee the election. As a curious coincidence, Debra Bowen is a guest speaker at a Monterey County Democratic Party function next week.
The law firm for the citizen intervenors has been associated with Republican causes in the past.
BTW, the 3-judge panel has dissolved the temporary restraining order, and decided not to issue an injunction. They really didn’t have any choice since their jurisdictions is only to ensure that the pre-clearance procedure was followed.
Their opinion noted that Monterey County had represented that they did not intend to make further changes. So in fact there were simply two polling place changes, moving from a church to a community center in Pacific Grove and moving from the Big Sur Lodge to the Big Sur Grange Hall, about a mile down the highway.