I just got the new boxset and was watching some older episodes. Specifically, I watched the one about the California 47th election. Will was running a campaign for a Democratic candidate in a heavily Republican district. The candidate died three weeks before the election. According to the show, California law prohibited a new candidate from replacing the dead one on the ballot. But for a variety of TV related reasons, the dead candidate won the election. Again, according to the show, this required a special run-off election with a new Democratic candidate running against the Republican who had lost. In this second election, the Republican won.
Now does this bear any relationship to real California election law? And if so, what possible sense does it make? If the Democratic candidate won the election but was unable to assume office because of death (or any other disqualifying reason) wouldn’t there just be a special election to replace him with another Democrat? And if you’re just going to have another election between the replacement candidate and the candidate who lost, why not save time and have the replacement candidate step in and run in the regular election? The only advantage I see to the system that was described was that in the real world outside of TV, any candidate whose opponent died would be guaranteed a victory. But considering the randomness of which candidate might die between a nomination and the election, I can’t see why either party would favor such a system.
I know nothing about California election law, and don’t watch the show, but it would make sense that a district with a vacancy might be required to have a special election. (The seat is vacant, because the incumbent’s term has expired, and the winner of the election doesn’t qualify, because he’s dead.)
So a new election would follow. Anyone can run, including the former incumbent.
Dunno what the law is in Cali, but in 2000 a similar situation happened in Missouri. The Democratic nominee for Senator (also the sitting governor) died in a plane crash shortly before the election. The Dems campaigned to have people vote for him anyway. I guess the theory was that the Republican nominee (the incumbent, & a former Missouri governor himself) shouldn’t win by default. Makes sense, I guess.
Anyway, the late Mr. Carnahan won, so the governor of the state (who had of course been lieutenant governor until Carnahan died) had the authority to appoint a Senator to serve until the next general election (two years later). As per the party’s plan, Carnahan’s widow was appointed Senator, & the incumbent, one Mr. Ashcroft, got to go down in history as losing his Senate seat to a dead man.
I hope I got the details right, that was from memory.
Under California law (I’m pretty sure about this) if there is a vacancy in an office such as Congressman or State Legislature, the procedure is:
After X number of days, the governor sets a date for a special election. All the candidates run on one ballot. There is no primary. If the winner gets 50% plus one, that person takes over immediately. However, if there is no majority, then the top vote getter in the top two parties gaining votes (which means Republicans and Democrats) run off against each other X number of days later.
So, it’s possible that a race (especially in Orange County) could draw six Republicans and one Democrat. They all run on the same ballot. The six Republicans finish 1-6, but no one gets more than 50%. The Democrat runs 7th and gets 2%.
The runoff would feature Republican #1 vs. Token Democrat.
There was a recent special election (or by-election for our English friends) in California to replace Rep. Robert Matsui who passed away around the New Year.
Little Nemo, you do realize, that this was just a plot device to get Aaron Sorkin’s friend Joshua Malina onto the show and get Rob Lowe off of it, right? An just esoteric enough of a story to keep things interesting.
I know nothing about California election laws, but I am a documented West Wing geek.
To answer your first question, it’s because you vote for the person and not the party. The people who voted for Joe Deadguy didn’t vote for “a democrat”…they voted for Joe Deadguy. If he’s not available, he can’t serve.
As for the second question, I seem to remember in the show that the dead candidate died about a week (or some short amount of time) before the election. So the ballots would already have been printed, and the deadline to get on the ballot would have passed.
I understand that in TV logic, it all makes perfect sense. I’m just wondering if this was based on a real law or just made up.
Actually in most elections, you are voting for a party not a particular candidate. As far as most election law is concerned, you didn’t vote for Joe Individual, you voted for The Guy My Preferred Party Put Forth As Its Representative. Which isn’t surprising - unlike individuals, political parties are long term institutions, so they have the ability to steer election laws in their favor.
So it would behoove the parties to have laws in place so that if Joe Individual becomes Joe Deadguy three week before the election, the party can have a new candidate step in and become Jack Party-Representative.
You do not “vote for a party” according to election laws. Federal election laws only recognize parties as fundraising entities. The Constitution makes no mentionof them at all.
The Constitution may have made no mention of them but the ballots certainly do. Here’s a New York ballot from 2004 - notice that the party affiliations are listed above the candidates. And you have a choice of which party you want to vote for candidate with - the Republican Bush or the Conservative Bush, the Democrat Kerry or the Working Families Kerry.
And this North Carolina ballot shows that in some states you can skip over the candidates entirely and just vote for a party directly.
If there is a vacancy in an office in California, the Governor issues a call for a special election to be held 112 and 119 days in the future. The primary election will be held on the 8th or 9th (depends if there is a holiday) Tuesday prior to the day of the general election.
Also under California law, a deceased candidate cannot be removed from the ballot fewer than 68 days prior to the election. If the dead person gets the most votes, the seat is declared vacant and a special election is called. If there is enough time to replace the deceased person, the party’s central committee can name a replacement.
Candidates on California ballots are listed in a random order by their last name. The parties are listed on the side normally.
