California Senate 2024 - Schiff (D) vs Garvey (R)

[MRS DONNA SHALALA]

So what explains the fact Adam Schiff got 144,000 fewer votes in the special than he did in the regular primary? The special actually had 82,000 more total votes and there were far fewer minor candidates to siphon off votes so you would think everyone's total would go up and in fact every other candidate in the special did get more votes than they did in the regular primary. Is it as simple as Democratic voters giving Lee or Porter a sort of consolation prize?

To be clear I don't think this has any significance, I just found it an oddity.

I think it's people being confused by the ballot ("I can't vote for these people twice!, that's illegal!"), and leaving the Special blank so as to not risk spoiling their ballot. Honestly not surprised there's more dropoff.

[MRS DONNA SHALALA]

So what explains the fact Adam Schiff got 144,000 fewer votes in the special than he did in the regular primary? The special actually had 82,000 more total votes and there were far fewer minor candidates to siphon off votes so you would think everyone's total would go up and in fact every other candidate in the special did get more votes than they did in the regular primary. Is it as simple as Democratic voters giving Lee or Porter a sort of consolation prize?

To be clear I don't think this has any significance, I just found it an oddity.

I think it's people being confused by the ballot ("I can't vote for these people twice!, that's illegal!"), and leaving the Special blank so as to not risk spoiling their ballot. Honestly not surprised there's more dropoff.

But the special had more total votes. Also Garvey had more votes in the special than the regular primary so Republicans didn't appear to be confused as to how many times they could vote for a candidate.

Ah whoops, missed that bit. In that case the ranked-choice theory makes sense, but otherwise no idea why that might have happened.