On Oct. 30, 2024, days before the 2024 U.S. presidential election, X user @DarthCaul posted a complaint about a supposed problem with California's voting machines: The name of former U.S. president and 2024 Republican nominee Donald Trump was not visible on the first screen of the ballot. Instead, according to the post, voters who wished to vote for Trump had to select "More" on the voting machine to see his name.
(X user @DarthCaul)
The user posted a picture showing the names of Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, former independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (Kennedy dropped out of the race too late to have his name removed from the ballot), Libertarian Party nominee Chase Oliver, and Green Party nominee Jill Stein — but no Trump.
Users in the comments claimed this was an example of voter suppression or election interference. The claim was echoed by other large right-wing accounts on X, including that of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
However, this was not a case of election interference — it was a direct result of state law. According to the California Secretary of State's office, the order in which candidates appear on the ballot is decided by randomizing the alphabet, giving each candidate an equal chance to appear at the top of the ballot, then rotating the positions based on the California State Assembly district the voter is in. The candidate on the top of the ballot is moved to the bottom of the list and all other candidates move up a spot, and so on.
From the state of California's website:
On the 82nd day before an election, the Secretary of State conducts a randomized drawing of letters of the alphabet pursuant to California Elections Code section 13112. The resulting order of letters constitutes the "randomized alphabet" to be used for determining the order of candidates' names on the ballot.
This alphabet applies throughout the candidate's name, last name first, followed, if necessary, by first name, then middle name. If more than one candidate's last name begins with the same letter, proceed to the second letter and, if needed, the third, etc., until different letters appear in the same position. If the second letter of the last name differs, the second letter of the last name determines who appears first on the ballot, according to where the second letter of the name appears in the randomized alphabet. If the second letters are the same, proceed to the third letter, and so on. For example, if two candidates with the last names Campbell and Carlson are running for the same office, their order on the ballot will depend on the order in which the letters "M" and "R" were drawn in the randomized alphabet drawing.
Statewide Office
Names of candidates for offices voted on statewide rotate by Assembly district, starting with Assembly District 1 where the names appear as first determined by the randomized alphabet. In Assembly District 2, the candidate who appeared first in Assembly District 1 drops to the bottom and the other candidates move up one position and so on throughout the 80 districts. This gives each candidate more than one opportunity to appear at the "top of the ticket" in his/her race.
U.S. Congressional Office
Congressional candidates follow the randomized alphabet and rotate within their districts with the lowest numbered Assembly district leading the rotation.
On Aug. 15, 2024, Califorinia Secretary of State Shirley Weber conducted that drawing for the Nov. 5 presidential election. The randomized alphabetical order was as follows:
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That made the order of the five most prominent candidates the following: Trump, Harris, Kennedy, Oliver, Stein. The picture featured in the X post above displayed the same order, except it started with Harris and ended with Trump, which is a valid order given the rules for how the ballot order changes for each Assembly district.
The official X account of the Los Angeles County Registrar, which is in charge of conducting elections, replied to the original post explaining those rules, noting that the "More" button was only present because the voting machine only displays four options per page.