On July 25, California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed SB 49. The bill provided that when a special legislative election is called, and only one candidate files to be on the ballot, the election is then cancelled. The veto message points out that cancelling the election would interfere with the possibility that a write-in candidate might file. The California deadline for a write-in candidate to file is only two weeks before the election, so if the bill had gone into effect, the election would be cancelled before anyone had had a chance to file as a write-in.
The veto message is here. This bill had passed the State Senate over a year ago, on July 9, 2015. The Senate vote had been unanimous. It had passed the Assembly on June 27, 2016, and only four Assemblymembers had voted against the bill. Thanks to Mike Feinstein for this news.
One correction. The bill said that the candidate “*may* be declared elected by the Governor” (emphasis added); the cancellation is not automatic, and the Governor could allow the election to take place. Clearly that would allow the Governor to “play politics” with such special elections.
I also note that the bill doesn’t give a time frame by which the election must be cancelled. I suppose if it had been amended to say “and no write-in candidate had filed” by the write-in candidate deadline, then write-in candidates would be protected. However, since VBM ballots have to go out 30 days prior to the election, cancelling the election less than two weeks before election day would not have saved the jurisdiction much (if any) money.