to make the recall election even more interesting the government of california has deemed the current alphabet as too easy to use, therefore....
It's alphabet soup on state's ballots
By Dean E. Murphy
The New York Times
SACRAMENTO -- Listen up, kindergartners. Put your ABCs out of mind. Even the alphabet is getting an official makeover as part of the California recall election. It now goes something like this (when singing, the familiar melody is still OK): R, W, Q, O, J, M, V, A, H, B, S, G, Z, X, N T, C, I, E, K, U, P, D, Y, F and L.
The race to replace Gov. Gray Davis, often likened to a carnival, looked more like a political version of "Wheel of Fortune" on Monday as a state elections official, assisted by a part-time percussionist from a Latin jazz band, determined the random alphabetical order of the candidates on the Oct. 7 ballot.
"I asked if I could break into song, but they wouldn't let me," said the percussionist, Miguel Castillo, who also works as an analyst in the Secretary of State's Office and as the manager of a local rock band. "They needed someone with experience in front of the camera. The first time I performed live on stage, I was scared to death. You choke on your words."
It is still not known who has officially qualified to appear on the ballot as a possible successor to Davis, should he lose the recall vote. At last count, 195 candidates had submitted the necessary paperwork, with more names still trickling in Monday from county elections offices.
Once the final tally is official, probably not until Wednesday, the new alphabet will be used to place them in order. The secretary of state, Kevin Shelley, said Monday that 96 of the candidates had so far been checked out as legitimate and were likely to be among those certified.
But Shelley could not predict what the final list might look like or how such an unwieldy ballot would play with the voters.
"Let me be candid," Shelley said, "there are going to be problems. Like in any situation, you play with the cards you have been dealt."
Castillo's was a nonspeaking part Monday, but no matter. The percussionist expertly churned a bingo-style barrel spray-painted gold and crammed with 26 plastic film canisters, each containing a different letter of the alphabet.
The state official joining him, Shirley Washington, who works in the press office for the secretary of state, assumed the Vanna White role, plucking the canisters one by one and reading the letters aloud. She did so in a slimming black suit and a classic pearl necklace under the scrutiny of a former director of the California lottery, positioned just off stage.
"This is now the new alphabet," Terri M. Carbaugh, an assistant secretary of state, declared from a lectern after the final letter, "L," was drawn.
Though Carbaugh did not do so, it would have been an appropriate moment to extend condolences to Dick Lane of Santa Clara County and Gary Leonard of Los Angeles, two candidates who will never appear at the top of the ballot under a dizzying rotation system that assures a different candidate occupies the marquee position in each of the state's 80 Assembly districts.
Using the current list of 96 qualified candidates, for example, the first name on the ballot would be David Laughing Horse Robinson, an artist from the Central Valley. He would be followed by Ned Fenton Roscoe, a Libertarian from Napa, and Daniel C. Ramirez, a Democrat from Imperial County.
Some of the race's biggest name contenders would not show up until well down the roster. Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger would be in the 45th spot; Lt. Cruz Bustamante in the 43rd. Bill Simon Jr., the Republican candidate for governor last November, would be 48th, and Peter V. Ueberroth, the former baseball commissioner, 74th.
But that lineup would only apply to the first of the state's 80 Assembly districts, a mostly rural area that covers the state's far northwest corner, including Humboldt and Mendocino counties, a place where redwoods and wild animals outnumber people.
According to the rotation system, the top name on the ballot falls to the bottom in each successive district, so that each of 80 candidates on the ballot gets the best billing in one district. So keeping with the example of the 96 candidates, Robinson would drop to No. 96 in the second Assembly district, also in rural Northern California, and so on.
With such a system, it is hard to know where a candidate might want to land in the alphabetical tally.
If the election for governor last November is any guide, Democratic candidates like Bustamante should be hoping for a shot at the top of ballot in Assembly Districts 45, 46, 47, 48 and 52. All of them are in Los Angeles County and all of them voted overwhelmingly for Davis. In his best showing statewide, the governor got 83 percent of the vote in District 48.
For Republicans, the odds-on favorites based on the same election would be District 32, which covers parts of Kern and San Bernardino counties; District 71 in Orange and Riverside counties; District 66 in Riverside and San Diego counties; District 29 in Fresno, Tulare and Madera counties; and District 73, in Orange and San Diego counties.
All those counties voted heavily for Simon. He had his strongest showing in District 32, where he won 65 percent of the vote.
Shelley, the secretary of state, said the random alphabetical drawing has been performed for statewide elections since 1975, after court rulings that determined the standard alphabetical listing of candidates was not constitutional. Studies at the time, Shelley said, showed that the name at the top of a ballot typically enjoys a 5 percent advantage over the others.
"We do it prior to every election," Shelley said. "No one ever comes."
Until Monday.
At least a dozen television cameras recorded Washington's every move. A crush of radio reporters huddled beneath the bingo barrel, their microphones extended as close as possible to capture the clickety clack of the tumbling canisters.
"We need the sound! We need the sound!" one of them demanded, as elections officials slid the barrel closer to them.
The media and public interest was so great -- even a few lesser-known candidates made an appearance -- that the event was moved down the hall in the secretary of state's building from a small conference room into an auditorium.
There, Shelley was introduced with Pat Sajak fanfare (his entrance from stage right was announced in advance for the cameras) and then fielded questions. Afterward, a "five-minute intermission" was announced for journalists to prepare for the drawing.
"This is a big test for California," Shelley said before exiting stage left for San Francisco, where his wife is expecting their second child. "History will be our witness."
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