The Independent View: CA Bill to Revise Top-Two Primary Results

Thanks to Richard Winger of Ballot Access News for this post.

The California Constitution says that All Candidates for Congress and Partisan State Office must run in the Primary, and only the Top-Two Candidates will be on the November Ballot.

On March 22nd, California State Senate Ben Allen (D-26th District) introduced SCA-21.

It says that Write-In Candidates in the Primary who place Second cannot be on the November Ballot unless they Poll at least 40 Write-Ins for U.S. House and Legislature. Currently, if a Write-In Candidate places Second, they go on the November Ballot with One Write-In Vote.

in 2018, there are three U.S. House Races and 14 Legislature Races with only One Person on the Primary Ballot, so there will surely be Write-In Candidates in the Primary in those Districts, with the Write-In Candidates hoping to outpoll any other Write-ins,.

It is common in California for Bills to be introduced, and then substantially Amended later in the process. This Bill could become a vehicle for making major changes in the Top-Two Primary system.

Attempts are being made to persuade Senator Allen to Amend his Bill to propose a Return to the Blanket Primary, which California used in 1998 and 2000. A Blanket Primary prints All Candidates except Independents on the same Primary Ballot. Then the Top-Two Vote Getters Advance to the General Election.

The U.S. Supreme Court invalidated California's Blanket Primary in 2000 in California Democratic Party v Jones, 530 U.S. 567, because it was Unconstitutional as applied to any Party that objected to letting Non-Members choose Party's Nominees. Winger thinks this could be handled if the New Bill said that any Party that Objects to the Blanket Primary is Free to Nominate by convention.