2026 is going to be a very important election year. American voters will be determining the future of the President Trump administration and the Republican control of both houses of congress. Voters will be weighing continuing that power center as is or choosing to make changes because they desire different outcomes on public policy for the economy, immigration enforcement tactics, foreign relations, health care financing, our exploding national debt, and the worsening problem millions of American face in simply making ends meets.
The actual voting in California begins in just two months, with the June 2 statewide primary election which will determine the candidates in the November run-off elections.
This first item on that June ballot will be determining which two of the 61 candidates for governor will graduate to the November runoff.
Yes. We have one vote and 61 options. California is a top two primary. In June all 61 candidates will be listed together. While the party of each one will be cited, they will not be clustered by party affiliation (that only happens in presidential primaries, not off year elections). To make it even more confusing, the candidates’ names are rotated by state assembly districts so no person can get an advantage by being first or last on the ballot (the spots many experts say are best placement for candidates in multi candidate races).
Of the 61 candidates, 24 happen to be registered Democrats, 12 are Republicans, one is Libertarian, one is Peace and Freedom and 23 are no party preference. By the way, the time period for taking a name off the list has expired. Even if one of them dies he or she stays on the ballot. These same rules apply for the other statewide races, but with fewer candidates. There are 16 candidates for Lt. Governor, four for Secretary of State, three for Controller, six for Treasurer, three for Attorney General, 11 for Insurance Commissioner and 10 for Superintendent of Public Instruction.
After the statewide slate of candidates, we have to deal with partisan races for congress, assembly and state senate. Most local government offices — city councils, school boards), will appear only on the November ballot.
That is when we will be in what will probably be the most ferocious and important election in our recent history. We need to be very attentive during this. Efforts may be made to limit access to voting and to hamper the processing of ballots. Most voters in Stanislaus County vote by mail. And our ballots once we drop them in a US Postal service mail box, are shipped to Sacramento where they get postmarked, and then returned to the county. Best advice to be sure your vote is counted is to mail it 7 days before election day. Or drop it off in one of the county votes boxes which will be open until 8:00 pm on election day.
