Fact check: Is California putting Bernie Sanders at the bottom of its 2020 primary ballot?
An enthusiastic Bernie Sanders supporter not employed by the campaign posted a video on Twitter Monday afternoon suggesting the state of California had intentionally placed the Vermont senator at the bottom of the ballot – and billionaires Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg at the top.
Within four hours, the post received more than 1,000 retweets and 2,300 likes. It also got dozens of replies from concerned Sanders supporters worried that party leaders are rigging the election by discouraging people from voting for him.
“The establishment is going to do everything it can to stop Bernie Sanders from becoming (President of the United States). More reason Bernie 2020 supporters MUST get the word out and educate voters,” wrote Stephanie Quilao under the username @bern_identity.
Concerns Sanders is being deliberately placed at the bottom of California ballots, however, are unfounded and inaccurate.
The facts are that the names of candidates are listed in an order determined in December through a randomized alphabet selection process conducted by the Secretary of State’s Office. Twenty Democrats qualified for the ballot, including three candidates who dropped out of the 2020 race out after a Dec. 26 withdrawal deadline and one candidate who didn’t file the necessary paperwork to take his name off the ballot.
The randomized drawing rotates the 20 candidates by state Assembly district, meaning all candidates will appear both at the top and bottom of the ballot in four districts.
“The tweet you cited shows the danger of misinformation and the difficulty in combating it,” said a statement from Sam Mahood, spokesman for Secretary of State Alex Padilla. “This is why we caution voters to be vigilant on social media. The original tweet has over 30,000 views and counting. State and local elections officials are here to answer questions about the elections process. If voters are unsure about any facet of voting they should go to trusted sources — state and local elections officials — for answers.”
The ballot Quilao received came from Solano County and placed Sanders second from the bottom of the ballot. Steyer was listed at the top and Bloomberg was fourth from the top. Most counties are expected to mail ballots starting on Feb. 3 — a month before California’s March 3 primary election.
In Sacramento, voters will see Sanders at the top or toward the top of their ballots. The 9th Assembly district, which stretches from Southwestern Sacramento to Lodi, places Sanders at the very top of the ballot, while the 7th Asembly District covering the rest of Sacramento and West Sacramento puts Sanders third from the top.
Californians will see 52 names on their primary ballots this year, including 20 Democrats and seven Republicans. County elections officials are already sending out ballots by mail, and voters have until Feb. 25 to request a mail-in ballot.
Quilao did not respond when reached for comment via Twitter. In subsequent tweets, she corrected herself by adding more context. By Tuesday morning, she changed the settings of her Twitter account to restrict the public’s viewing access to her profile.
“The lineup I just learned because I posted my ballot is determined randomly based on CA Assembly District,” she wrote. “So I just happen to be in an AD with a ballot that has the billionaires at the top and Bernie last.”
Even so, she insisted the ballot was a “great example of voter confusion.”
“How are voters supposed to know this?” she added.
The Secretary of State’s Office posted the results of the drawing on its website on Dec. 12 and announced the date of the drawing itself 10 days earlier.
“The random alphabet drawing and rotation of candidate names is to prevent any candidate from having an unfair advantage,” Mahood said. “This is an open and transparent process held before every election. The random alphabet drawing is open to the public and press.”