288,000 Californians vote for indicted arms trafficker

State Senator Leland Yee, whom I hope you remember made international headlines when he was indicted on arms trafficking and corruption charges last March, had been a candidate for secretary of state. He dropped out of the race after his arrest, but it was too late to remove his name from the printed ballots.

Yesterday, Yee received almost 288,000 votes — 10% of the total and good enough for third place in the primary. He finished ahead of five other candidates.

A tip of the hat to San Jose State University political scientist Larry Gerston, who was remarkably insightful about how this could happen.

“There will be some people who will vote for Yee because they do not know what is going on,” he said.