Greg Jan of the California Green Party has initiated this on-line petition, asking Secretary of State Debra Bowen to speak out in favor of restoring write-in space to the California general election ballot. The California legislature earlier this year passed AB 1413, which removes write-in space from the November ballot for Congress and partisan state office. California and Louisiana are the only states that ever had write-ins and which later removed write-in space from the ballot. Both states did so in conjunction with switching to a top-two open primary system.
Washington state still has write-ins, however; there is nothing inherent in top-two systems to require that write-ins be abolished. California supporters of top-two have said virtually nothing about why they don’t want write-in space on ballots. Steve Peace, one of the most important backers of the California top-two system, has said that he favors bringing back write-in space. Other supporters of the California top-two system, including IndependentVoice, simply never mention the issue.