Random alphabetical drawings determine general election ballot listings

Always on the 82nd day before the election, the California Secretary of State’s Office in tandem with local county clerk-recorder offices conducts a randomized alphabetical letter drawing to determine the order of candidates' names on the ballot.

“The fairness comes out of the randomness, if you will," San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano explained. "So we have our alphabet tiles that we randomly pick.”

Open to the public, some of those who were present in the Clerk-Recorder's Office on Thursday became a part of the drawing.

“Any one of our candidates, they all have the same opportunity to be listed at the top of their contest,” Cano said.

The drawing here in San Luis Obispo was for the candidates in the State Assembly and State Senate while the Secretary of State’s Office in Sacramento was simultaneously doing the same for all of the other election contests, including local elections.

Cano says the next order of business is consolidating and organizing the ballot to be submitted for print no later than September 20.

Ballots will be mailed out by October 7.

For more information on the ballot process visit www.sos.gov/elections .