California is the only state that prints occupations of candidates on the ballot. On March 25, John Eastman, a Republican running for Attorney General, filed a lawsuit to have “Assistant Attorney General” next to his name on the primary ballot. He is a California resident and an Assistant Attorney General in South Dakota. California’s Secretary of State refused to let Eastman have “Assistant Attorney General” as his ballot occupation. See this story.
On March 25, a California Superior Court Judge in Fairfield, Solano County, made a tentative procedural ruling in King v Robinson, the case involving the internal dispute inside the American Independent Party. The tentative ruling says the the Defendants (the Alan Keyes faction of the party) were properly served by a process server. Therefore, assuming the tentative ruling is made permanent tomorrow, the case can proceed to the merits of the dispute. UPDATE: the tentative decision was made permanent on March 26.
The tentative wording says, “Defendant’s motion to quash service of summons is denied. The court finds that proper service has been carried out pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure 415.20. The evidence indicates that the process server attempted to serve Defendant by calling out his name and alerting him that he had legal documents to serve him and Defendant attempted to evade service by running into the house and slamming the door. Because service has been accomplished, the court has acquired personal jurisdiction over Defendant.”
The California Secretary of State, for well over 100 years, has been publishing official election returns, in a booklet called “Statement of Votes.” These booklets always contain a chart showing historical data on turnout.
These booklets show that California voter turnout is always significantly higher in November general elections, than in primary elections. In the entire history of voter registration in California, over 50% of the registered voters have always turned out for regularly-scheduled general elections.
But no matter what kind of primary election system California has used in past decades, voter turnout in non-presidential primaries is always under 50% of the registered voters. One must go back to 1982 to find any non-presidential California primary election in which at least 50% of the registered voters voted. In June 1982, 52.7% of the registered voters voted.
Even when California used a blanket primary, in 1998, voter turnout in the June 1998 primary was only 42.5% of registered voters. It is true that turnout in the June 1998 primary was better than non-presidential primaries since then. But, California primaries since 1998 have always featured a Governor running for re-election. Generally, turnout in mid-term primaries is higher when there is no incumbent Governor running for re-election. Perhaps turnout in the June 2010 primary will be relatively high, because no incumbent Governor is running for re-election.
Turnout in November elections is always higher than turnout in June primaries because voter interest is always higher in election years in the fall, rather than in the spring. November elections are of heightened public interest, in California and in all states, because the entire nation is voting in November. The drama caused by the fact that all U.S. voters are voting nationwide on the same day, plus the higher stakes in November elections, guarantees that the fall campaign season will always be the high point of voter interest. Proposition 14, shutting all minor party, independent, and non-establishment campaigns out of the fall season, will significantly curtail the circulation of political ideas.
According to this story, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has secured several millions of dollars in pledges to the campaign to pass Proposition 14.
Connecticut HB 5021, which eliminates the discriminatory aspects of the state’s public funding for state candidates program, has already passed the Joint Government Administration and Elections Committee. It is now in the Office of Legislative Research and the Office of Fiscal Analysis, for improvement of the wording. It will emerge from those offices on March 30, and at that point will either return to the Joint Committee, or go straight to the House floor.
