ACA 16: Elections: partisan primaries.

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 partys candidates.

Resolved by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That the Legislature of the State of California at its 202122 Regular Session commencing on the seventh day of December 2020, two-thirds of the membership of each house concurring, hereby proposes to the people of the State of California that the Constitution of the State be amended as follows:

(a)The Legislature shall provide for partisan primary elections for presidential candidates, and political party and party central committees, partisan offices, including an open presidential primary whereby the candidates on the ballot are those found by the Secretary of State to be recognized candidates throughout the nation or throughout California for the office of President of the United States, and those whose names are placed on the ballot by petition, but excluding any candidate who has withdrawn by filing an affidavit of noncandidacy.

(b)A political party that participated in a primary election for a partisan office pursuant to subdivision (c) has the right to participate in the general election for that office and shall 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 partys candidates.