On September 7, the California Court of Appeals in San Francisco heard arguments in Field v Bowen. The issue is two particular aspects of the California top-two system (Proposition 14), and whether the Superior Court should have granted injunctive relief in a special election earlier this year. The lawsuit challenges (1) the discriminatory law on ballot labels, in which some candidates may put their party on the ballot and others may not; (2) the complete ban on a candidate appearing on the ballot as “independent”; (3) the law that says write-in space should be on the ballot, but write-ins can never be counted.
Almost simultaneous with the hearing, the California State Senate Elections Committee released an analysis of AB 1413, a bill that would change various details of the California top-two system. The analysis says this about the current write-in law: “One of the provisions of SB 6 prohibited write-in votes from being counted at a general election for a voter-nominated office. Other provisions of law that require that write-in spaces appear on the ballot, however, were unaffected. This could create confusion, and could mislead voters into thinking that write-in votes for candidates for voter-nominated office at a general election will be counted.” This analysis is correct. Current California law on write-ins, which will remain unchanged at least for the remainder of 2011, sets a trap for voters. The ballot shows write-in space, and nothing on the ballot, or in the voter pamphlet, or in any notice posted at the polls, tells voters that write-ins for Congress or state office will not be counted.
