The California Independent Voters Network has this column, criticizing the California bill that would impose restrictions on the ability of write-in candidates in the June primary to appear on the November ballot, even if such candidates did place second in the June primary.
Excellent little article, Richard. You chose a very good example of how significant write-ins under top two
were important.
Under the old partisan nomination system, the 1% threshold made some sense – thought it logically should have been applied to all candidates and not just write-in candidates.
A candidate who was nominated by an independent body of electors needed a similar number of signatures; and political parties were in essence organized body of electors who were of large enough size to warrant having a primary. If the primary voters didn’t actually support the nomination, it would be almost as if they didn’t have a quorum.
If I were wanting to sabotage Top 2, I would attempt to introduce measures like this; the Secretary of State’s bill to prevent candidates having their actual party preference appear on the ballot; and the Secretary of State’s practice of ordering candidates in primary results by party, rather than number of votes or alphabetical order.