Butch Ware, who was endorsed by the Green Party of California in his bid for governor, earned 22,493 votes in the state’s June 2 primary, reportedly the largest total received by any write-in candidate since California adopted its top-two primary system.
The showing was first documented by Ballot Access News, which reported July 10 that Ware’s notably strong performance placed him ahead of 49 candidates listed on the ballot. Official results from the California Secretary of State show that Ware earned 22,493 votes, or 0.2 percent, also giving him the second-highest vote total among third party and independent candidates in the race behind Ramsey Robinson of the Peace and Freedom Party.
California uses a top-two primary system for its gubernatorial elections, meaning all candidates appear on the same primary ballot regardless of party preference, with only the two candidates receiving the most votes advancing to the general election. Ware, an associate professor of history at UC Santa Barbara and the Green Party’s 2024 vice presidential nominee, was formally backed by the Green Party of California last year and had been expected to appear on the primary ballot with the rest of the party’s endorsed candidates.
However, Ware was kept off the ballot after the Secretary of State’s office rejected his tax-return filings, dealing his campaign a major setback. State law requires gubernatorial candidates to submit five years of tax returns to qualify for the ballot, a requirement Ware attempted to challenge in court soon afterward.
A Sacramento judge rejected Ware’s lawsuit in late March, ruling that he did not submit the correct tax returns in time to qualify. In his defense, Ware argued that he had corrected the filings and accused state officials of creating arbitrary barriers to his campaign. The Secretary of State’s office responded that his paperwork contained multiple inconsistencies.
Ware later made a separate attempt in federal court, but was dealt another setback when a judge ruled it was too late to add him to the ballot because voting was already underway. Ware ultimately continued his campaign as a write-in candidate.
The strongest prior write-in showing identified by Independent Political Report since California’s top-two primary system took effect was Republican Linda Blankenship’s 2020 campaign for the 39th State Senate District. Blankenship received 18,643 write-in votes in the primary before losing to Democrat Toni Atkins in both the primary, and then again later in the general election.
Also notable about Ware’s performance is that he accomplished it despite the Green Party of California and the Peace and Freedom Party having two distinct candidates for governor in the primary. The two parties otherwise put forward a joint Left Unity Slate for several other statewide offices, though the Peace and Freedom Party continued to support Robinson, who appeared on the ballot and finished ahead of Ware with 51,803 votes.
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