Your March 2024 Ballot: Understanding What’s Going on with the US Senate Primary Race
Your March 2024 Ballot: Understanding What’s Going on with the US Senate Primary Race
This publication explains what California voters are being asked to vote for with the US. Senate races in this year’s Primary election. This publication describes how these contests will appear on the March 5, 2024 statewide primary ballot and what your options mean.
Disclaimer: This publication is legal information only and is not legal advice about your individual situation. It is current as of the date posted. We try to update our materials regularly. However, laws are regularly changing. If you want to make sure the law has not changed, contact DRC or another legal office.
What you will notice on your ballot
In addition to the other contests on your ballot, voters will have two separate opportunities to vote on the same U.S. Senate seat.
The first contest for the U.S. Senate seat is asking which person you want to be the U.S. senator for the next full term of office. A full term of office for a U.S. senator is six years. The next full term of office will run from January 3, 2025, until January 3, 2031.
The second contest for the U.S. Senate seat is asking which person you want to be the U.S. senator for the rest of the current term of office. The current term of office will end on January 3, 2025. As described in more detail below, this U.S. Senate seat is currently being temporarily held by someone the Governor appointed until the 2024 elections.
In each of these contests, the top two vote-getters will be on the ballot in the November 2024 election. Even if a candidate in either of these contests gets more than 50% of the vote in the March election, they still have to compete in the November election in order to win the seat.
Your options for voting on the two U.S. Senate contests
You can vote on either or both of these two U.S. Senate contests. You can vote for the same person in both contests, or you can vote for a different person in each of the contests.
As in any election, you can choose not to vote on any or all contests, including either or both of the two U.S. Senate contests that are on the March 2024 ballot.
The current officeholder, Laphonza Butler, who was appointed, announced she will not be running for a full-term.
As described above, your votes in the March 2024 primary election help decide which candidates will be in the November 2024 general election.
Why the contest for the rest of the current U.S. Senate term is on the ballot
You do not need to know all of the details about why the contest for the rest of the current U.S. Senate term is on the ballot in order to cast your vote but keep reading if you are interested in learning the background.
Senator Dianne Feinstein previously held this office, and she began serving as U.S. senator in January 1992. When she died in September 2023, someone else needed to finish the last year of her U.S. Senate term. California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Ms. Butler (now Senator Butler) to serve in that role.
California Assembly Bill (AB) 1495, effective January 1, 2022, allows the governor to appoint someone to temporarily fill a vacancy in a U.S. Senate seat, but it makes that appointment temporary, in most situations, until there is a statewide primary and general election to select the person who will hold the office for the rest of the ongoing term. As a result of AB 1495, the contest for the rest of the term for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Ms. Butler will appear on the ballot for the statewide primary election on March 5, 2024 (and then on the ballot for the statewide general election on November 5, 2024), even though the term will expire on January 3, 2025, which is less than two months after the general election.