morning after an election

California had its primary election yesterday. It came on with a bit of a start to me, as we'd long since cast our votes, dropped off our ballots, and got e-mails saying they'd been counted, and didn't pay any attention to the actual election day.

Necessary background: We have a top-two primary system here. All candidates regardless of party run in the same primary, and the two who get the most votes, regardless of party, compete in the general election in the fall.

But here's a wrinkle I didn't know. I was reading a news article about some of the local races - county offices and such - and it said, "To win outright in those races and avoid a runoff, a candidate must collect more than 50% of the vote."

I didn't know we did that. But which races does that apply to? I mean, Governor Newsom is getting 56% of the total vote in his re-election race, but surely he's not going to avoid a runoff. (In Louisiana, the other state which has these "jungle primaries," he would.) In fact, the articles are already talking about which shrimp is going to take him on: it'll be one who got 17% of the vote - 17%! - a Republican state senator from Lassen County. That's about as obscure a locale as we've got.

So where does the "avoid a runoff" provision apply and where does it not?