Readers React: Bocanegra felled by ballot position

To the editor: As a political scientist who focuses on election mechanics’ effects on election outcomes, I can tell you that your take on former Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra’s (D-Pacoima) stunning loss is simply incorrect. (“Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra lost focus, and reelection,” Editorial, Nov. 25)

It strains credulity to think that Bocanegra somehow “lost touch” with his district since the June primary, when he bested Patty Lopez by nearly 40 percentage points.

Rather, it is obvious to those of us who study such things that Bocanegra was done in by the ballot. Every other contest on that page of the ballot was a two-candidate race featuring a Democrat in the top position versus a Republican in the bottom position. It seems clear that voters in the heavily Democratic district fell into a “response set,” wherein they assumed that a vote for the top candidate was for the Democrat.

Bocanegra had the misfortune of being listed second in a contest between two Democrats; I’m quite sure most voters simply cast a vote for the top candidate.

It’s somewhat troubling to think that an election could be decided by something as inconsequential as the order of the names on a ballot. But that is clearly what happened here.

Stephen Nichols, San Marcos, Calif.

The writer is a professor of political science at Cal State San Marcos.

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