Jesson

On March 5, 2002, California voters marched to the polls to participate in their biannual rite of electoral passage, the state’s primary election. The incumbent Governor Gray Davis won his party’s nomination with 1,589,113 votes and Bill Simon won the Republican Party nomination with a count of 1,012,428. The appellant in this case, one Nick Jesson, was also seeking the Republican nomination and drew a mere 17,281 votes statewide.

After the election, Jesson filed this election contest, asking the Orange County Superior Court to enjoin the Secretary of State from certifying the results. The trial court declined the invitation to throw the California gubernatorial race into utter chaos and prudently denied relief, dismissing Jesson’s election contest. Jesson then filed this “petition for writ of mandate/appeal,” which this court has ordered be treated as an appeal. Inasmuch as Elections Code section 16920 requires us to give precedence to election contest appeals “over all other appeals,” we calendared it for argument within 10 days of its filing.

The basis of lesson’s election contest is this: The California Constitution provides that an oath be taken by every public…