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How random drawing of candidates for ballot works
Monday August 11, 2003With 195 candidates in the running in the Oct. 7 recall election, position on the ballot is crucial. State law requires that the order of the candidate names be selected randomly. To get the order, officials at the California Secretary of State's Office will:
Assign each letter of the alphabet a canister to be drawn from a lottery box, until a new alphabetical order has been determined.
The first letter drawn receives first position on the ballot and all candidates whose name begins with that letter will be first.
Candidates with the same first letter of their last name would be assigned positions based on the order in which the second letter of their last name is drawn.
The candidate order is then rotated based on Assembly districts. The initial ballot order would be used in Assembly District 1. In Assembly District 2, the candidate at the top of the ballot moves to the bottom. The rotation continues through all 80 Assembly districts.
Source: California Secretary of State's office.
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