Special elections to the California State Senate are called by the Governor of California when a vacancy arises within the State Senate. Most special elections are conducted in two rounds. The first is an open primary and the candidate with the most votes must have a majority of the votes plus one to win the seat. If no candidate wins a majority, a second round is held with the two top candidates regardless of party.
Recall elections, the process by which voters petition for the removal of an elected official, are also included.
List of special elections
The dates listed indicate the time of the final election, either a runoff election or the open primary round if no second round was held.
When applicable, the candidate who succeeded the recalled state senator is listed. If the recall election was not successful the winner is listed as "none".
The first round of the special election was consolidated with the regularly scheduled primary election. Although most of the candidates in the two contests were the same, the results were very different. Rita Topalian finished first in both races, but different candidates finished in second place. Vanessa Delgado finished in 2nd place in the special election, but 3rd place in the regularly scheduled primary election. She received a similar number of votes in both races, but candidate Bob Archuleta received about 54% more votes in the regularly scheduled election than he did in the special election. The different results have been attributed to the different order in which the candidates were listed on the ballot.[5]
^"Statement of Vote: June 3, 2008, Statewide Direct Primary Election" (PDF). California Secretary of State. 2008-07-16. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-07-17. Retrieved 2008-07-16.
^"Special Election Results: Senate District 26 Special Election, May 19, 2009 - FINAL OFFICIAL RESULTS" (PDF). California Secretary of State. 2009-06-01. Retrieved 2009-06-28.
^"Official Canvass: State Senator 37th Senate District Special General Election, June 8, 2010" (PDF). California Secretary of State. 2010-07-12. Retrieved 2010-08-18.
^"Official Canvass State Senator 15th Senate District Special General Election, August 17, 2010" (PDF). California Secretary of State. 2010-08-25. Retrieved 2010-12-22.
^Myers, John (June 9, 2018). "Los Angeles voters picked different candidates for the same job". Los Angeles Times.
^"CANDIDATES FOR MARCH 26, 2019, SPECIAL PRIMARY ELECTION" (PDF). California Secretary of State. February 1, 2019. Retrieved February 2, 2019.
^"CANDIDATES FOR MARCH 26, 2019, SPECIAL PRIMARY ELECTION" (PDF). California Secretary of State. February 1, 2019. Retrieved February 2, 2019.
^"CANDIDATES FOR MARCH 2, 2021, SPECIAL PRIMARY ELECTION" (PDF). California Secretary of State.
^"State Senate District 30 - Districtwide Results". California Secretary of State. Retrieved March 3, 2021.