This article by John Donegan is published in Bakersfield. Here is an extract:

Two candidates, locked in a tightly contested race, are squaring off this week, despite the near-certain fact that no one has ever heard of them.

That’s because these candidates are fiction, made up as part of a mock election organized by Kern County’s Elections Division.

Kern Registrar of Voters and Auditor-Controller Aimee Espinoza delivered an update Tuesday before the county Board of Supervisors on the rehearsal designed to prepare staff for upcoming real elections. The trial began earlier that day and was still underway Thursday, with more than 229 county staff members, pooled from various departments, participating.

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