On July 14, U.S. District Court Judge Otis Wright set the date of August 22 for oral argument in Chamness v Bowen, the case that challenges the part of California’s top-two system that lets some candidates use their party label on the ballot but not other candidates. According to the order, although the judge is still inclined to uphold the ballot label law, he wants to be fair and to listen to oral argument.

Also regarding the California Top Two lawsuit, the scope of the case was potentially expanded on July 18, when a write-in candidate for U.S. House in the July 12 special election, for an office in the 36th district in western Los Angeles County, asked to intervene in the case.

Tea Party candidate Julius Galacki voted for himself, because the ballot contained write-in space, but his vote was not counted because the law implementing the top-two system says write-ins can never be counted in the general election for Congress and partisan state office.

Section 15340 of the California election code guarantees the right to cast a vote for any write-in candidate in any election, stating that

“Each voter is entitled to write the name of any candidate for any public office, including that of President and Vice President of the United States, on the ballot of any election.”

Yet Section 8606, added to the election code by SB6, prohibits the counting of such votes in a general election, stating:

“A person whose name has been written on the ballot as a write-in candidate at the general election for a voter-nominated office shall not be counted.”

So, under California’s Top Two system, you have the right to cast a write-in vote, but the state is prohibited by law from counting it!

Galacki was also critical of the aspect of Top Two allowing only certain recognized parties to appear on the ballot. Currently, Tea Party and all other minor-party candidates are be forced to falsely state on the ballot that they have “No Party Preference”. According to Galacki, “this law creates an inferior, second-class status for anyone from a small party, and that’s truly un-American, unconstitutional and just plain wrong.”