2020 California Democratic presidential primary
The 2020 California Democratic presidential primary took place in California, United States, on March 3, 2020, as one of 14 contests scheduled on Super Tuesday in the Democratic Party primaries for the 2020 presidential election, following the South Carolina primary the weekend before. The California primary is a semi-closed primary, with the state awarding 494 delegates towards the 2020 Democratic National Convention, of which 415 are pledged delegates allocated on the basis of the results of the primary. The Associated Press declared Bernie Sanders the winner of the primary, improving on his polling average  by 3%. The runner-up, Joe Biden, had a stronger-than-expected finish to match his Super Tuesday momentum. Procedure. California was one of 14 states that held its primaries on March 3, 2020, also known as "Super Tuesday", having joined other states on the date after the signing of the Prime Time Primary Act by Governor Jerry Brown on September 27, 2017, in an effort to increase the influence of the delegate-rich state in the nomination process. Candidates may obtain ballot access in a number of ways. They must have.: If they do not have at least one  of those qualifications, they may submit petitions of 500 signatures from each of the state's congressional districts obtained from November 4 to December 13, 2019. The official list of qualified candidates was released on December 6, 2019. Unqualified candidates were required to submit their petitions by this date. Military and overseas mail-in ballots were sent out on January 3, 2020, and domestic mail-in ballots were requested and sent out from February 3 to February 25. Early voting centers opened for business on February 22 and will continue until March 3. Election day voting took place throughout the  state from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. In the semi-closed primary, candidates must meet a threshold of 15 percent at the congressional district or statewide level in order to be considered viable. The 415 pledged delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention were allocated proportionally on the basis of the results of the primary. Of the 415 pledged delegates, between 4 and 7 are allocated to each of the state's 53 congressional districts, and another 54 are allocated to party leaders and elected officials (PLEO delegates), in addition to 90 at-large pledged delegates. Differing from past custom  the Super Tuesday primary as part of Stage I on the primary timetable received no bonus delegates, in order to disperse the primaries between more different date clusters and keep too many states from hoarding on the first shared date or on a March date in general. Following the primary, district-level delegates to the national convention were elected on June 7, 2020 (originally planned for 19 April), in the post-primary caucus. Should presidential candidates have been allocated more delegates based on the results of the primary than delegate candidates presented, then supplemental delegates would have been elected at  caucuses on May 9, 2020. The national convention delegation meeting was subsequently held on June 28, 2020 (planned for May 17), to vote on the 54 pledged PLEO and 90 at-large delegates to send to the Democratic National Convention. The 415 pledged delegates California sends to the national convention were joined by 79 un-pledged superdelegates (30 members of the Democratic National Committee; 48 members of Congress; and the governor Gavin Newsom). Candidates. The following candidates appear in the Certified List of Statewide Candidates: Running Withdrawn Results.