Mathews: California governor's race needs write-in option to block Trumpian win

"No, not an insurance policy for our homes - those are too expensive, if you can find one in the first place. Instead, let's get an insurance policy to protect California against Trump and his acolytes. To secure the policy, the legislature must pass a bill to allow write-in candidates to run in our November elections. That may seem small. But it could be huge next year, because of the volatile combination of California's top-two election system and a wide-open 2026 race for governor."

"Opinions differ on whether the top-two has fulfilled its promise of producing more moderate elected officials. But it definitely has produced some anti-democratic results. Especially when the majority party has too many candidates in a race, and the minority party has just two. In these cases, the majority party candidates can split up the vote into small shares, allowing the two minority party candidates to finish first and second - thus locking the party most people support out of the runoff."

California's top-two nonpartisan primary advances the two highest vote-getters from a first-round ballot to the November runoff, regardless of party. Write-in candidates are currently barred from joining the November ballot. When one party fields many candidates while the opposing party fields only two, vote-splitting can allow the minority party's two candidates to finish first and second, excluding the majority party from the runoff. That lockout has occurred four times, most recently in 2022. The emerging 2026 governor's contest features many Democratic candidates and only two Republican candidates who are strong Trump supporters, creating a potential emergency. Passing a bill to permit November write-ins would provide protection against such outcomes.

Read at The Mercury News