Friday, June 29, 2018

CA 2018 Top-Two Primary Review


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

California held its Fourth Primary under the Top-Two Primary system on June 5th. Votes are still being Counted, but here are some interesting facts:

- The turnout is estimated to be 36.4% of registered Voters. It was boosted by the fact that five Counties including Sacramento and San Mateo, which are populous Counties, sent every Registered Voter a Mail Ballot, for the first time in California History.

- For the First time since Top-Two started, The California Green Party will have Candidates for U.S. House on the November Ballot. Two qualified because they filed in Races with only One Major Party Candidate was running. One of the Greens was in a Two-Person Race, 40th Congressional District, Rodolfo Cortes Barragan with 8,741 or 19.7% Votes. One was in a Three-Person Race, with One Democrat, One Green, and One Libertarian. 34th District, Kenneth Mejia with 8,987 or 12.9% Votes.

- For the Second Time in California Top-Two History, the Democratic Party in a Congressional District, the 8th, Lost a Seat, because its Vote was Split Up among too many Candidates, and the Republican Party had Two Candidates, and placed First and Second. Paul Cook had 43,804 or 40.8% Votes and Tim Donnelly had 24,441 or 22.8%, Votes. Also, the Republicans Party Lost in the 76th Assembly District, the Two Democrats placed First and Second, because the Republican Vote was split among Six Candidates. Elizabeth Warren with 28,739 or 26.6% Votes and Tasha Boerner Horvath with 27,551 or 25.1% Votes.

- For the First time ever in a California Top-Two Race, a Minor Party placed Second in a congressional District which had more than a Single Major Party Person running. Mimi Robson, a Libertarian and State Chair of the Party, running in the 70th Assembly District, placed Second with 11,779 or 16.9% Votes.

- In the 41st Congressional District, Independent Alan S. Reynolds, came in Second with 25,237 or 27.7% Votes.

- The Independent Voter Project (IVP), which has promoted California's Top-Two Primary system and helped Defend it in Court, now favors a Top-Four Primary system. They would use Ranked-Choice Voting for the General Election.










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2 comments:

richardwinger said...

Your 4th paragraph got a little garbled. It should say for the 2nd time in history, the majority party in a district was cheated out of having a member in the general election. The first time was 2012, 31st US House district. The second time was 2018, the Republicans were the victims this time in the 76th Assembly District.

mhdrucker said...

Thanks. I combined the third and fourth paragraphs.