On April 15, the California Assembly Elections Committee passed AB 372, by Assemblymember Frank Bigelow (R-O’Neals). The vote was 4-2. Even though the bill’s sponsor is a Republican, the only Republican on the Committee who attended the hearing, Assemblymember Shannon Grove, voted “no.” The other “no” vote was by Democratic Assemblymember Mike Gatto. The other four Democrats, Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, Richard Gordon, Kevin Mullin, and Henry Perea, voted “yes.”

California does not now require any write-in candidates to pay a filing fee. The bill says if a write-in candidate for Congress or partisan state office places second in the primary, and therefore moves on to the November ballot, that candidate must pay a filing fee after the primary is over. The fee is 2% of the annual salary for statewide office, and 1% for district office.

No one testified in favor of the bill. Three witnesses, including one Libertarian and two Peace & Freedom members, testified against the bill. The sponsor of the bill was the only candidate who filed to be on the June 2014 primary ballot, but a Libertarian write-in candidate, Patrick Hogan, filed to have his votes counted in the primary. Because Hogan was the only declared write-in candidate, he placed second and appeared on the November ballot. He was the only California Libertarian who appeared on the November 2014 ballot for a partisan office, and he got 25.75% of the vote. Thanks to Gale Morgan for this news.

The bill is being amended to provide a procedure for a write-in candidate who placed second in the primary to then submit a petition in lieu of filing fee instead of being required to pay the filing fee. The amendment language is not yet available.