On March 17, California held an election to fill three vacant State Senate seats. In the 37th district, in Orange County, three Republicans were on the ballot, and the ballot had write-in space. Even though this was the only office on the ballot, more than 1,200 voters cast an “undervote”. In other words, they did not vote for any of the three candidates on the ballot, nor did they vote for the only declared write-in candidate in the race, Democrat Louise Stewardson.
The Orange County Registrar of Voters, in this interview, was asked why a voter would go to all the trouble to vote in an election with only one race on the ballot, and not vote for any of the official candidates. The response is that most of these voters wanted to vote for a Democrat, but they didn’t know the name of the only declared write-in Democratic candidate. Probably most of these undervotes are from voters who cast a write-in for someone who wasn’t a declared write-in candidate.
So far, the election returns for this race are: Republican John Moorlach 36,393; Republican Donald Wagner 31,870; Republican Naz Namazi 2,490. There is no tally yet for the number of write-ins for Louise Stewardson. Until the Stewardson write-in total is known, it is difficult to predict if Moorlach got as many as 50% of the total valid votes cast. If he didn’t, there will be a run-off. Thanks to AroundtheCapitol for the link.