On October 3, California held a special election for Assembly, 51st district. In California special elections, the first round is an election, and anyone who polls at least 50% is elected. If not, there is a run-off.
Thirteen candidates were on the ballot: ten Democrats, one Libertarian, one Peace & Freedom member, and one independent. The ten Democrats together polled 95.7%. Here are the results from the California Secretary of State’s web page. The results are not final.
In an election of this type, in which one party is dominant, the interest of the voters is fixed on which member of that dominant party will win, so the vote for others shrinks below what it normally would be.
Maybe California should just dump the primary altogether, and only use ranked choice voting in a single election. With 10 Democrats running, people ought to be able to rank them, rather than scattering their votes, and depending on what is essentially a random outcome.
Might as well just dump elections for sortition if it’s going to be this ridiculous and one-sided in each district :/