A new text poll is asking California voters if they would write in former Vice President Kamala Harris on to the ballot for the California governor’s race.
The poll, according to shared screenshots, lists three to four questions on the California Democrat.
It asked about the chances of the voter writing in Harris’s name, and then it asked in the scenario that Harris was actually running a write-in campaign, who the voter would elect.
Early in the election season for California governor, Kamala Harris was anticipated as the dominant favorite. Andrew Schwartz / SplashNews.com The survey then asks the voter whether he or she thinks the process of writing someone is easy or not.
According to the California Secretary of State, a candidate must file a statement of write-in candidacy between April 6 and May 19.
Then write-in nomination papers must be circulated and left with a county elections official in that same time period.
Such an effort to qualify would be easy for Harris, who early in the election season was anticipated as the dominant favorite had she chosen to jump into the governor’s race.
“Takes a whopping 65 signatures!” commented Paul Mitchell, vice president of Political Data Inc, a bipartisan voter data firm.
News of the poll comes coincidentally right when leading Democratic candidate Rep. Eric Swalwell dramatically quit the governor’s race after reported accusations on Friday of sexual misconduct.
Competitors are jostling for Swalwell’s voters, but the leading Democratic candidates to take those votes — former Congresswoman Katie Porter and billionaire Tom Steyer — could also have baggage of their own, observers noted.
Harris entering the race would fix what some have described as an unimpressive field of candidates unable to break out of the pack.
A new text poll is asking California voters if they would write in Kamala Harris on to the ballot for the governor’s race. Getty Images Sign up for the California Morning Report newsletter California's top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.
“Someone is sending up a trial balloon to see if Kamala Harris could swoop in and win the California governor’s race,” wrote Darwin BondGraham, the news editor who shared the screenshots.
Harris has not publicly given any inclination that she is rethinking her decision to not run for governor. Inquiries to her office by the California Post were not returned.
As recently as Friday, she said she “is thinking about” running for president again at a convention hosted by Rev. Al Sharpton.
Some social media users speculated the poll is actually an attempt by Republicans to muck things up.
Previously, Democrats in the state were contending with a nightmare scenario where too many of their party’s votes would be split up among a crowded field of candidates. That could lead to the two Republicans in the governor’s race — Steve Hilton and Sheriff Chad Bianco — getting the top two spots and locking Dems out of the general election.
Swalwell’s departure lessens that possibility, as the California Democratic Party continues calling low-polling candidates to drop out of the race.
However, enough Democratic votes siphoned away to a write-in option for Harris could make the Democratic vote even more split.
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