ACA 16

Bill Subjects

Abstract

The California Constitution provides for a voter-nominated primary election to select the candidates for congressional and state elective offices in California. The California Constitution provides that all voters may vote at a voter-nominated primary election for any candidate for congressional and state elective office without regard to the political party preference of the candidate or the voter, and the top 2 vote-getters, regardless of party preference, compete in the ensuing general election. The California Constitution prohibits a political party or party central committee from nominating a candidate for any congressional or state elective office at the voter-nominated primary. This measure would repeal those provisions relating to voter-nominated offices, including the requirement that the top 2 vote-getters, regardless of party preference, compete in the ensuing general election, thereby reclassifying congressional and state elective offices as partisan offices. The measure instead would require the Legislature to provide for primary elections for partisan offices, and would provide that a political party that participated in a primary election for a partisan office, including congressional and state elective office, has the right to participate in the general election for that office and may not be denied the ability to place on the general election ballot the candidate who received, at the primary election, the highest vote among that party's candidates.