The Orange County Register has this story about write-in candidates in California primaries for top-two offices. It features the race for the 59th Assembly district, where the only candidate whose name is on the June 7 primary ballot is the Republican incumbent. Two write-in candidates have qualified to have their write-ins counted, a Libertarian and an independent. As the story notes, whichever one of them gets the most write-ins will have his name on the ballot in November. The California Constitution says the top two candidates qualify for November, regardless that the person who places second might be a write-in candidate who gets only a handful of votes. The record low vote for a California top-two race in a primary, who placed second, is 3 write-ins received by a Peace & Freedom candidate a few years ago.
The California Secretary of State is expected to announce the list of qualified write-ins by the end of the day on Friday, May 27, for all congressional and legislative elections.
The newspaper story gives an incomplete account of write-in candidates for congress in the general election who have won. There are three write-in winners for Congress from California alone, from the general election: (1) Charles F. Curry, Jr. in 1930, from the 3rd district; (2) William F. Knowland for the 1946 special U.S. Senate election (the two month term); and (3) Ron Packard in 1982 in the 43rd district from Orange and San Diego Counties.