On March 12, the San Luis Obispo County Elections Office conducted a randomized alphabet drawing, marking the 82nd day before the Statewide Primary Election. On this day, the California Secretary of State’s Office and county clerk-recorder offices across the state determine the order in which candidates will appear on local ballots for the June 2 primary election.
The drawing took place at 11 a.m. in the Clerk-Recorder’s Office lobby at the San Luis Obispo County Government Center. Open to the public, community members attended to observe the process.
“Local government is the one that ultimately has the decisions that affect us,” said Yiming Luo, a third-year Cal Poly student. “I know there’s a lot of turbulence on the federal side, but right now, state and local decisions really affect our daily lives. A lot of important decisions are made at that level.”
According to the San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder’s Office, staff randomly pulled Scrabble tiles to create a new alphabet sequence used to determine the order of candidates in the State Assembly and State Senate races.
At the same time, the California Secretary of State’s Office in Sacramento conducted a separate drawing to determine the alphabetical order for all other contests, including local elections.
Once both drawings were complete, the sequences were combined to finalize the layout of ballots for primary voters in San Luis Obispo County.
Deputy Director Penny Boyd said the process helps ensure fairness by preventing any advantage that could come from candidates appearing earlier in alphabetical order on ballots.
Ballots will be mailed out by May 4.
For more information on the ballot process and primary elections, visit www.sos.gov/elections and SloVote.gov/June2026.
