Drawings determine the order of candidates on the ballot & letter assignments for local measures
February 4, 2011

Contact: Mark Church, Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder
Alternate: David Tom, Elections Manager

Redwood City, CA – The Secretary of State will conduct a Random Alpha Drawing on February 7 to determine the ballot order for candidates in the supervisorial contest in the May 3 Consolidated Local Special Election. The Random Alpha Drawing is the method established in the Elections Code to impartially establish ballot order. In instances where the offices to be voted on are wholly within one County, the Secretary of State conducts the drawing at the request of the Chief Elections Officer as required by law.

The random alphabet drawn by the Secretary of State will be applied to the last name of each candidate to determine the order in which they will appear on the ballot. For example, if the order of letters drawn is J, M, C, L, candidates will appear in this order:  Jones, Mendez, Coelho and Lee. In a case where there is more than one candidate that has filed to run and the names of the candidates all begin with the letter “J” (e.g., Jones, Jew, Jimenez), the second letter will dictate the order within the group using the same randomly drawn letters. 

The order of candidate names will appear on ballots in the first supervisorial district and then be rotated for each subsequent district in that the name appearing first will be moved to the last position on ballots in the second supervisorial district and so forth.

In addition to the seven potential candidates vying for the vacant position on the Board of Supervisors, there will be at least two school district measures on the May 3 Consolidated Local Special Election ballot. Candidates and jurisdictions can still file papers until 5 p.m. today.

The Elections Office will conduct a random alpha drawing on February 10 to assign a letter to each qualifying measure consolidated with the May 3, 2011 election.

Elections registrars throughout California that are conducting special elections on May 3, 2011 will hold similar drawings at the same time.

The roster of local candidates and measures appearing on the May 3 ballot are available on the Elections website, at http://www.shapethefuture.org/elections/2011/may2011/

For more information about the drawing, please contact Candidate Filing Officer Megan Asmus at 650.312.5293 or masmus@smcare.org 


The press release is displayed in its original format. San Mateo County Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder & Elections website now resides at www.smcacre.org

Related Contacts

Mark Church

Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder and Chief Elections Officer
555 County Center
Redwood City, CA 94063-1665Get Directions
Phone:
650.363.4988

Jim Irizarry

Asst. Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder & Asst. Chief Elections Officer
555 County Center
Redwood City, CA 94063-1665Get Directions
Phone:
650.363.4988