At California’s June 5 primary, incumbent State Senator Loni Hancock was the only name on the ballot in the 9th district, which includes Berkeley, much of Oakland (both in Alameda County) and adjoining parts of Contra Costa County, including El Cerrito and parts of Richmond. California still permits write-ins in primaries, and two minor party members filed as write-in candidates.
Peace & Freedom Party member Mary McIlroy polled 768 write-in votes just in the Alameda County part of the district. Here is a link to all the Alameda County write-in totals. Contra Costa County still hasn’t reported its write-ins. Also, Libertarian Party member Lisa Ringer polled 87 write-ins in Alameda County for the same seat. Thanks to Irv Sutley for the link.
McIlroy will appear on the ballot in November, since she placed second to Hancock. The Green Party had endorsed McIlroy, so McIlroy was the beneficiary of organized support from two minor parties.
Impressive indeed. Mary will join two other Peace and Freedom Party candidates: Gene Ruyle, a retired university professor living in Berkeley, was a write-in candidate in the 15th State Assembly district and Lee Chauser, a retired school teacher living in Long Beach, was a write-in candidate in the 33rd State Senate district. All three will be on the general election ballots in their areas. Another Peace and Freedom Party write-in candidate is competing with two other write-in candidates in the 37th Congressional district which is in Los Angeles County. Those votes have not yet been made public.
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Mary McIlroy only came in second and gets in the November runoff because there was only one major party candidate in the race and no Green Party or Libertarian in the race. McIlroy was the beneficiary of an endorsement by a Green Party voter guide which was widely distributed in the East Bay.
Few voters knew (and probably fewer cared) that this San Francisco transplant had earlier in the year tried and failed to run with three others for county central committee of the Peace and Freedom Party in Contra Costa County. McIlroy was a part of a four person slate which included the notorious STEVEN BRUCE ORCUTT whose pretend name is “Frank Runninghorse” a sexual predator of children, who when he was 51 years of age was convicted in Contra Costa County Superior Court of sexual assault on a 14 year old African American girl. McIlroy and ORCUTT have co-chaired this committee together and McIlroy is a staunch defender of this child abuser. Unfortunately because write-in votes are banned by Proposition 14 in the general elections, there is now no way to vote for a truly progressive and feminist candidate in the 9th State senate District. Loni Hancock will most certainly win this seat in November, but greens, socialists, and certainly left feminists will abstain from voting for either of these unacceptable candidates.
The results are now complete, though not yet officially certified, with, as expected, Mary McIlroy coming in second of three candidates. The Alameda County results reported in the original post were final, and this morning the Contra Costa County Elections Department said the write-in counts were complete and reported that the totals there were 17 votes for Mary McIlroy to 5 votes for Lisa Ringer in the 9th State Senate district. Thus the overall totals gave Loni Hancock (whose name appeared on the ballot) a bit over 100,000 votes, Mary McIlroy (write-in) 785 votes and Lisa Ringer (also write-in) 92 votes.
We can expect Mary McIlroy to get substantially more votes in November when her name will actually appear on the ballot.