morning after an election

[calimac]

California had its primary election yesterday. It came on with a bit of a start to me, as we'd long since cast our votes, dropped off our ballots, and got e-mails saying they'd been counted, and didn't pay any attention to the actual election day.

Necessary background: We have a top-two primary system here. All candidates regardless of party run in the same primary, and the two who get the most votes, regardless of party, compete in the general election in the fall.

But here's a wrinkle I didn't know. I was reading a news article about some of the local races - county offices and such - and it said, "To win outright in those races and avoid a runoff, a candidate must collect more than 50% of the vote."

I didn't know we did that. But which races does that apply to? I mean, Governor Newsom is getting 56% of the total vote in his re-election race, but surely he's not going to avoid a runoff. (In Louisiana, the other state which has these "jungle primaries," he would.) In fact, the articles are already talking about which shrimp is going to take him on: it'll be one who got 17% of the vote - 17%! - a Republican state senator from Lassen County. That's about as obscure a locale as we've got.

So where does the "avoid a runoff" provision apply and where does it not?

Comments

[ranunculus]

I have to say I didn't know. So I looked it up. Fair Choice California says that any candidate who receives 50% plus 1 vote wins the election. Ranked choice only comes in if no candidate takes 50% plus 1. Ranked choice is counted until one candidate reaches 50% plus 1.

[calimac]

No. You are looking at somebody's proposal for a voting system, not the way it actually is. The system you're looking it is called Alternative Vote, and it's used in a number of foreign countries and for the Hugo Awards, but not for general elections in the US.

[ranunculus]

Hmmm, Ok! I knew how the San Francisco system worked, but haven't paid attention since I moved back to Ukiah.

[calimac]

Maybe some local elections, but 1) not here, and 2) the build-up to 50% via ranked-choice voting has nothing to do with the 50% I'm talking about. I'm talking about a bunch of candidates on the ballot, voters each pick one and only one, the top two finishers go to a run-off. What happens if one of them gets more than 50%? Apparently sometimes the runoff is then skipped; I'm trying to figure out when.

[ranunculus]

When you find an answer let me know!