This chapter shall not apply to elections for the office of state Senator or Member of the Assembly of the California Legislature.
Chapter 3Contests at General Elections
Section § 16200
This law states that the rules in this chapter do not apply to elections for California's state Senators or Assembly Members.
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Section § 16201
This law states that minor mistakes or improper actions by election board members at a polling place won't cancel an election. An election is only considered invalid if these issues directly lead to someone being wrongly declared the winner or tied for the most votes.
No irregularity or improper conduct in the proceedings of the precinct board members, or any of them, is malconduct that avoids an election, unless the irregularity or improper conduct is such as to procure the defendant to be declared either elected or one of those receiving an equal and highest number of votes where no one person has received the highest number of votes.
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Section § 16202
If an election for a county office is challenged because of wrongdoing by a precinct board or its members, the election results won't be overturned unless excluding the votes from that precinct changes the overall outcome of the election in the county.
When any election held for an office exercised in and for a county is contested on account of any malconduct on the part of the precinct board of any precinct, or any member thereof, the election shall not be annulled or set aside upon any proof thereof, unless the rejection of the vote of that precinct would change the result as to that office in the remaining vote of the county.
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Section § 16203
This law states that an election cannot be overturned just because there were illegal votes. For the election to be set aside, those illegal votes must have been given to the person whose win is disputed. If you subtract these illegal votes from their total, it must mean they no longer have more legal votes than their opponent.
An election shall not be set aside on account of illegal votes, unless it appears that a number of illegal votes has been given to the person whose right to the office is contested or who has been certified as having tied for first place, which, if taken from him, would reduce the number of his legal votes below the number of votes given to some other person for the same office, after deducting therefrom the illegal votes which may be shown to have been given to that other person.
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Section § 16204
An election won't be overturned just because some eligible voters couldn't vote, unless enough people were impacted to actually change who wins or loses.
An election shall not be set aside on account of eligible voters being denied the right to vote, unless it appears that a sufficient number of voters were denied the right to vote as to change the result.
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