A Pismo Beach attorney has been denied in his last-ditch effort to make the Nov.  4 ballot as a Democratic opponent for State Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria).

An attorney for the California Secretary of State's office sent the San Luis Obispo County Democratic Central Committee a letter last week that stated Dennis Morris' write-in candidacy in the June primary did not allow him to be placed on the November ballot if he didn't get enough votes.

"In order to appear on the ballot, Mr. Morris would have had to receive 3,689 write-in votes, which would constitute one percent of the vote for the office of 15th District State Senator at the November 2006 election," wrote Pam Giarrizzo, chief counsel for the Secretary of State's office. "As reflected in the official Statement of the Vote, Mr. Morris received only 2,096 write-in votes, far short of the 3,689 needed to gain a spot on the November 2008 ballot."

Morris, making his first run for elected office, had argued that he should be added to the ballot under a provision of the state Constitution that says a party has a right to add a candidate to a general election ballot if that candidate got the most votes from party members during a primary election.

Giarrizzo concluded that such a provision did not apply to write-in candidates.

Morris had run as a write-in candidate in the June 3 election after no Democrats filed formal paperwork to run against Maldonado, a moderate Republican who often votes with Democrats on such issues as the state budget.

Maldonado, however, also ran as a write-in candidate for Democrats, but said he did so to give his mother, a Democrat, the chance to vote for her son. Maldonado is termed out of office in 2012.

The letter said Morris can still run as a write-in candidate against Maldonado. Morris has said that regardless of how his petition turned out, he planned to run for state legislative office in future elections.