An emailer lays it out:
You wrote: ” Even when 45 percent of California’s voters didn’t pick a replacement candidate (because they voted “no” on the recall), Arnold Schwarzenegger’s votes this time were 3.7 million from the remaining 55 percent, compared to Davis’ 3.5 million from 100 percent of the electorate last year. In a conventional race, Schwarzenegger would have buried Davis.”
This is incorrect. Those who voted no on recall could still pick a replacement candidate. Indeed, this was the entire rationale of Cruz Bustamante’s candidacy. For evidence that this was the case, here are the vote totals on Question 1 and Question 2.
Note that the number of voters who voted on Question 2 is approx. 90%-95% (tough to tell precisely w/o adding up all the minor candidates) of the number of voters who voted on Question 1.
My bad. I really need to avoid all math questions. I keep screwing them up.
The Dish 