Senate OKs Bill to Ensure Convention Seating

SACRAMENTO —  The state Senate on Monday unanimously approved a bill aimed at ensuring that delegates chosen in California’s blanket primary next March are seated at the Republican and Democratic presidential conventions.

Under the state’s 1996 blanket primary law, any registered voter can vote for any candidate, regardless of party affiliation. But under the rules of the national Democratic and Republican parties, only registered party members can participate in the selection of the parties’ delegates to presidential nominating conventions.

In an effort to satisfy both the voter-approved blanket primary law and the rules of the two major parties, the Senate approved 35 to 0 and sent to the Assembly a bill to require voters in the primary election on March 7, 2000, to cast two ballots.

On the first ballot, Californians would vote for candidates of their choice without regard to party affiliation.

On a separate ballot, Democratic, Republican and some minor party members would vote for delegates pledged to their party’s White House contenders. These votes would be counted and used to apportion delegates to the national conventions.

If the bill (SB 100) fails in the Assembly, California will be “without a vote and conceivably without a voice” in selecting the GOP and Democratic presidential nominees next year, warned Senate leader John Burton (D-San Francisco), author of the bill. The state’s delegations will be the biggest at the two conventions.

Burton noted that the California Republican Party earlier this month rewrote its rules in support of his two-ballot bill. “The Burton proposal offers the best solution,” said Senate GOP leader Ross Johnson of Irvine.

The Senate rejected a competing bill (SB 28) sponsored by Secretary of State Bill Jones, a Republican. The bill would have allowed election officials to count the total number of votes each presidential candidate received and to also tally the votes each got from voters of his or her party.

The two bills had been advancing in tandem, while Senate leaders talked of reaching a compromise. But a settlement appeared out of the question Monday when Republicans threw their support to Burton’s plan and abstained or voted against Jones’ bill.

Johnson said there were “very serious questions” about whether Jones’ proposal would work, in part because of concerns over whether a coded ballot would comply with party rules.