On August 26, the California Secretary of State released a Memorandum to county election officials on ballot format for the upcoming general election. The Republican Party and the American Independent Party have both nominated Donald Trump for President. As expected, the Secretary of State’s Memorandum says the ballot should say “Donald Trump, Republican, American Independent.” This is in accordance with the election code and with the ballot used in November 1940, which included “Wendell Willkie, Republican, Townsend.”
The surprise in the Memorandum is the conclusion that it doesn’t matter if the Republican Party and the American Independent Party have not agreed to a common slate of candidates for presidential elector. The Memorandum says, “How will Presidential and Vice Presidential Electors be Selected when more than one political party nominates the same candidate?” The answer is, “The Elections Code does not address the manner in which electors for President and Vice President of the United States are selected in situations where more than one party nominates the same candidate. We will address this issue if/when appropriate.”
Several weeks ago, the American Independent Party suggested to the Republican Party that the two parties jointly nominate the same slate of presidential electors. The AIP proposed that the Republican Party choose 50 elector candidates, and the AIP choose 5 elector candidates, and then both parties would jointly nominate that fusion slate. But the Republican Party has balked at this idea. This means that the Secretary of State feels comfortable going ahead with the election, without having learned who the presidential electors of these two parties are. The Secretary of State probably made this ruling, confident that it doesn’t matter who the presidential electors are for those two parties are, because the Democrats will carry California anyway. This seems a very reckless course of action. If the two parties do file slates of presidential electors that don’t match, and if Trump carried California, there would be no method to know which presidential elector candidates had been elected. Furthermore, Democrats could claim that their slate of electors theoretically won the election because the Trump vote included two competing slates of electors and no one could know which of the three slates got the most votes.
The memorandum also gives the county election officials authority to abbreviate party names, although apparently this is just a repeat of a similar ruling made in 2012. The abbreviations would be: DEM, REP, AI, GRN, LIB, PF, and “REP, AI.” Thanks to Mark Seidenberg for the link.
