Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder-Elections

November 14, 2007

Contact:
Warren Slocum
Chief Elections Officer & Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder
Phone: (650) 363-4988 Fax: (650) 363-1903 E-mail: wslocum@smcare.org

Alternate:
David Tom
Phone: (650) 312.5222 E-mail: dtom@smcare.org

Random Alpha Draw Scheduled

Local Measures Assigned Their Letter Name for the February 2008 Election Tomorrow

Redwood City, CA – The expression, “it’s the luck of the draw,” best describes the method that is used by registrars all over the State of California when they assign local measures a “letter name” for the ballot. At 11:00 a.m. Thursday, November 15th, at the Elections Office at 40 Tower Road, election officials will do just that—draw letters out of a hat to determine the letter assigned to represent each measure and the order of its placement on the ballot. “Observers are welcome to watch the process,” said Warren Slocum, Chief Elections Officer for San Mateo County.

The Secretary of State will conduct a Random Alpha Draw for all candidates (this February it will only be the presidential nominees) and propositions on the February 5, 2008 Presidential Primary Election. State law dictates the date and hour that the Random Alpha Draw takes place; local and state officials conduct the random alpha draw concurrently.

Local measures scheduled for the February 2008 Presidential Primary include a hotel tax measure increase in the City of Half Moon Bay, a continuation of a special tax for fire and police services in County Service Area #1, and three school district measures seeking funding through bonds or parcel tax vehicles for the Sequoia Union High School District, Ravenswood City School District and the San Mateo-Foster City Elementary School District.

The practice is to continue down the alphabet in each successive election until all letters are used to avoid voter confusion with previous elections. For example, in the recent
November 2007 election, letters A – H were assigned to the eight measures on the ballot. That means, the first measure on the February 2008 ballot will become Measure I.

Measures are assigned letters based on a hierarchy of category as well. Countywide measures are assigned letters from the first group, followed by municipal measures, school district measures, and special district measures.

And in the instance where two or more counties or cities (some cities conduct their own elections) submitting measures to the voters are in close proximity, the election officials of those jurisdictions may agree to use letter designations for ballot measures that will not conflict or confuse the voters.

“The idea of the random alpha draw is to make the process completely impartial and to avoid the perception or reality of an advantage being given to a particular ballot measure,” explained Slocum.

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