OC Political

In Orange County, the Registrar of Voters has long published both candidates’ statements and ballot designations for review by the public in the ten days after candidate filing.  They cite Elections Code Section 13313, which states, “(a) The elections official shall make a copy of the material referred to in Section 13307 available for public examination in the elections official’s office for a period of 10 calendar days immediately following the filing deadline for submission of those documents…”  (Section 13307 refers to the candidate’s statement, name, age, and occupation; the occupation is of course what the ballot designation describes.)

In a stunning disregard for public input, the Riverside County Registrar of Voters has completely abrogated the public review period for ballot designations.  No fewer than 61 candidates had “Ballot Designation Pending” during the entire public review period (and actually still do as of this morning).  Keep in mind, I’m using the most generous standard possible in counting just 61: I’m excluding the US Senate race, along with any multi-county Congressional races or multi-county state legislative races (in multi-county races, you could go to the Registrars of the other counties to find the ballot designation).  Candidates for everything from Congress to State Legislature to County Supervisor to County Board of Education to Central Committee had “Ballot Designation Pending” as their ballot designation.

In the system as run by the Orange County Registrar of Voters, the ballot designations are published literally the same night that candidate filing closes, and the public is allowed ten days to file suit to obtain a writ of mandate from the Orange County Superior Court to force a ballot designation change if the plaintiff is able to prove (to the satisfaction of the judge) that the ballot designation is false, misleading, or somehow otherwise does not meet the requirements of the Elections Code (like using certain words on the forbidden word list).  Every election, there’s at least one, usually more, lawsuits in Orange County seeking writs of mandate over ballot designations.  Indeed, there are often suits at the state level over ballot designations (Attorney General and Board of Equalization District 2 come to mind from 2010).

Candidate filing for most offices closed on Friday, March 9, meaning the 10-day public review period ended two days ago on Monday, March 19.

However, the Riverside County Registrar of Voters has completely abrogated this public review for ballot designations.  The 10-day public review period has come and gone, and 61 candidates still have “Ballot Designation Pendling” under their names.  If a Riverside County resident had wanted to file suit to obtain a writ of mandate from the Riverside County Superior Court to force a ballot designation change, they would not have been able to do so because they would not have been able to view the ballot designations in order to file suit.  A plaintiff cannot prove a ballot designation is false, misleading, or otherwise in violation of the Elections Code if the ballot designation is simply pending.

While the Orange County Registrar of Voters allows voters to appeal ballot designations by giving them time to file suit with the Orange County Superior Court during the public review period to challenge ballot designations, it seems the Riverside Registrar of Voters wants to act as the all-powerful final arbiter of ballot designations, allowing no public recourse.