Counting of votes on ballots cast in the 2018 California primary goes on, with turnout far higher than shown by returns counted on Election Day, the Peace and Freedom Party's statewide candidates have received more than enough votes for the party to stay on the ballot through 2022. Many California voters do not realize how many votes are counted after an election day. Voter totals increase daily as more ballots are counted, and this process will continue until 5pm on July 5, 2018, when the count for the June primary election is completed.
The late-counted votes include provisional ballots; mail ballots handed in at the polls; mail ballots postmarked by election day that arrive as late as three days afterward; certain delayed military ballots; damaged ballots; and a few smaller categories. In many counties, the late-counted ballots substantially outnumbered the ballots cast on election day.
For the Peace and Freedom Party, some good news was evident within hours after the polls closed. Three different Peace and Freedom Party statewide candidates – Mary Lou Finley, Kevin Akin and Nathalie Hrizi – received more than 2% of the vote, and this means that the party will stay on the ballot for at least four more years. State law requires only that a single candidate reach the 2% threshold in order to maintain a party’s ballot status, but three successful candidacies shows a solid base of support for the country’s only mass-based socialist party, with over 74,000 registered voter members statewide on election day.
To show the sharp increases over the election-night counts, we are giving the election-night preliminary count and the updated count as of the morning of Friday, June 15, 2018. All these totals will rise, and some percentages may change as well, depending on the votes yet to be counted.
These are just the offices that were voted on statewide. It is quite difficult for smaller-party candidates to get votes for the offices of Governor and US Senator, for a complex historical and psychological reasons known in political shorthand as "lesser-evilism." The very large number of candidates for each office also worked to keep totals down. For a better look at the actual sympathies of voters, look at the down-ballot statewide races such as Controller, Treasurer, and Insurance Commissioner.
We will not try to report the count day by day but will post a complete report with more analysis after the final counts are available on July 5.
Peace and Freedom party candidates:
Vote totals in California Primary 2018 (Last updated June 15, 2018)
Gloria Estela La Riva for Governor
Election night vote total: 8,579
As of June 15: 15,366, or 0.3%
As of June 25: 17,909, or 0.3%
Gloria finished ahead of 15 other candidates in the gubernatorial race, including all No Party Preference candidates and all other candidates of small parties.
C.T. Weber for Secretary of State
Election night: 29,422
As of June 15: 51,673 (0.9%)
As of June 25: 59,097 (0.9%)
Mary Lou Finley for Controller
Election night: 127,920
As of June 15: 219,171 (3.9%)
As of June 25: 250,566 (4.0%)
Kevin Akin for Treasurer
Election night: 71,164
As of June 15: 126,044 (2.2%)
As of June 25: 142,498 (2.3%)
Nathalie Hrizi for Insurance Commissioner
Election night: 157,886
As of June 15: 269,666 (5.0%)
As of June 25: 304,822 (5.0%)
John Thompson Parker for U.S. Senate
Election night: 10,387
As of June 15: 18,720 (0.3%)
As of June 25: 21,591 (0.3%)
John finished ahead of eight candidates in this race.
The Peace and Freedom Party also endorsed no-party candidate Gayle McLaughlin for Lieutenant Governor. Her election night vote total was 112,246; as of June 15, this total has risen to 221,051, or 3.9%. Gayle was also endorsed by the Green Party, who in turn endorsed Peace and Freedom Party candidates Mary Lou Finley, Kevin Akin, Nathalie Hrizi and John Thompson Parker.
After the June 15 update, there are still hundreds of thousands of ballots to be counted in various counties. So all the above-listed totals will rise, and if the past is an accurate guide, some percentages earned by PFP candidates will change as well, often rising slightly.