Peace & Freedom Party Candidate for California State Senate Polls Impressive Write-in Vote

At California’s June 5 primary, incumbent State Senator Loni Hancock was the only name on the ballot in the 9th district, which includes Berkeley, much of Oakland (both in Alameda County) and adjoining parts of Contra Costa County, including El Cerrito and parts of Richmond. California still permits write-ins in primaries, and two minor party members filed as write-in candidates.

Peace & Freedom Party member Mary McIlroy polled 768 write-in votes just in the Alameda County part of the district. Here is a link to all the Alameda County write-in totals. Contra Costa County still hasn’t reported its write-ins. Also, Libertarian Party member Lisa Ringer polled 87 write-ins in Alameda County for the same seat. Thanks to Irv Sutley for the link.

McIlroy will appear on the ballot in November, since she placed second to Hancock. The Green Party had endorsed McIlroy, so McIlroy was the beneficiary of organized support from two minor parties.

Public TV Station in San Diego Interview with Gary Kreep

KPBS, the Public Television station in San Diego, has this 5-minute interview with Gary Kreep. The election between Kreep and his only opponent for Superior Court Judge in San Diego County is still too close to call. KPBS invited both candidates to appear on the show, but only Kreep accepted. He has been an attorney for the American Independent Party, for Alan Keyes, and others, over whether the California Secretary of State has a duty to investigate the qualifications of presidential candidates who appear on the California ballot.

The election returns, as of 5 p.m. June 11, are: Garland Peed 193,486; Gary Kreep 192,885. There are still over 50,000 votes not counted yet.

Americans Elect Revises its Web Page

On June 11, Americans Elect revised its web page, www.americanselect.org. Until today, the webpage had posted the number of “clicks” for each presidential candidate and draft choice. That tally has been removed. Instead, Americans Elect has a new, brief message, essentially thanking many of the individuals and groups that worked on the project. The site also says, “See you in 2013”.

Just for the sake of the historical record, the twelve candidates who received the most clicks are: Buddy Roemer 6,293; Rocky Anderson 3,390; Michealene Risley 2,351; Lawrence Kotlikoff 2,027; T. J. O’Hara 584; Mike Ballantine 425; Blake Ashby 269; Dwight Smith 229; Stuart Hillman 180; Beck Sanderson 170; Merlin Miller 148; Michael Levinson 136. Among this group, the only two who are petitioning to be on the November ballot are Rocky Anderson and Merlin Miller.

The twelve highest draft committees were: Ron Paul 9,498; Jon Huntsman 3,883; Bernie Sanders 2,716; President Obama 1,912; Michael Bloomberg 1,556; Gary Johnson 1,191; Stephen Colbert 848; David Walker 692; Elizabeth Warren 637; Dennis Kucinich 596; Jon Stewart 559; Hillary Clinton 458. Among this group, the only one of these who is petitioning to be on the November ballot is Gary Johnson.

Los Angeles Times Carries Joe Mathews Op-Ed on Top-Two Open Primary

The Los Angeles Times has this op-ed by Joe Mathews about California’s top-two open primary experience. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

Also see this story in Capitol Weekly, by Amy Wong. And see this Marin Independent Journal story by Brad Breithaupt. Both of these two news stories focus on the exclusion of minor parties from the November ballot.