California Ballots, Combined with Large Number of Candidates for Governor and U.S. Senator, Create Many Invalid Votes

California has been using the top-two system starting in 2011. But 2018 is the first year in which both Governor and U.S. Senate are on the ballot. Both offices always attract many candidates into the primary. And because candidates from all parties, as well as independent candidates, all run on the same ballot, the 2018 primary ballot is especially long.

This article from the Los Angeles Times explains that many counties are forced to put either Governor, or U.S. Senate, on the primary ballot so that some candidates for either office are listed in two separate columns. This, in turn, causes many voters to make a choice in each column. So, even though these voters understand that they can only vote for one person for any particular race, they still vote for two candidates for the same office because they choose one candidate from each column.

Of course, if each of California’s six qualified parties had its own primary ballot, there would be no such problem.

David Leip Learns that Washington State had 105,678 Write-Ins for President in November 2016

David Leip has contacted Washington state county election officials to learn the total number of write-ins cast for President in that state in November 2016. The answer is an amazing 105,678 write-in votes.

The failure of Washington state election officials to reveal this information is very unfortunate. It is fortunate that Leip took this action. Thanks to Jim Riley for this information.