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California sees half-million new voters registered since last presidential primary |
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Thursday, 31 January 2008 |
SACRAMENTO – According to the newest Report of Registration report released by Secretary of State Debra Bowen, 500,000 more Californians are registered to vote than at this time before the last Presidential Primary four years ago.
The report, with data gathered 60 days before a statewide primary election, reflects updates to voter registration rolls, including the removal of those who have passed away, moved out of state, or have been determined to be ineligible to vote, as well as the addition of new registrants.
When compared to the same period before the last presidential primary, registration lags behind California's population growth. While the overall registration number has grown, the percentage of people who are eligible to vote and actually registered to vote has dipped from about 68.4 percent to just below 67.3 percent. The drop is partly due to better tracking and removal of so-called "deadwood" from the voter registration rolls.
Both of the major political parties have seen their registration percentages fall as more voters decline to state a political affiliation. Nearly 20 percent of California registered voters choose not to affiliate with any political party.
Nearly 43 percent of California voters are registered Democrats. Alameda, Imperial, and San Francisco counties have the highest percentages of Democratic voters. Almost 34 percent of registered voters are Republicans. The counties with the highest concentration of GOP voters are Placer, Modoc and Sutter.
The American Independent and Democratic parties will allow decline-to-state voters to vote in their parties' presidential primaries. The other four political parties have "closed" primaries. No decline-to-state voter can request more than one party's ballot, and if a decline-to-state voter does not request a specific ballot, a nonpartisan ballot with only ballot measures and nonpartisan offices will be provided.
The bulk of California's voters are clustered in Southern California, in Los Angeles (3.9 million voters), Orange (1.5 million voters), San Diego (1.3 million voters), San Bernardino (724,682 voters), and Riverside (711,703 voters) counties.
Figures for 2004 did, however, include voters affiliated with the Natural Law party, which is no longer qualified in California.
By law, voter registration updates must occur 154, 60, and 15 days before each statewide primary election, and 60 days and 15 days before each general election. There is one off-year update released in February of non-election years.
Fewer people are on the voter rolls than in September 2007, when the 154-day Report of Registration was released.
The complete 2007 Report of Registration is on the Secretary of State's Web site at www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_u.htm. Hard copies are available to the media upon request through the Secretary of State's Communications Office at (916) 653-6575.
The Presidential Primary Election is Tuesday, Feb. 5, known nationally as “Super Tuesday,” as numerous state primaries occur on that single voting day. -Press Release
HOLD-SPACE/FORMAT PENDING
Dec 7, 2007 vs. Jan 2, 2004
Political Party # Registered % of Total
# Registered % of Total
American Independent 320,435 2.07 %
287,412 1.92 %
Democratic 6,598,773 42.66 %
6,450,624 43.16 %
Green 132,501 0.86 %
162,354 1.09 %
Libertarian 81,906 0.53 %
86,118 0.58 %
Peace and Freedom 57,013 0.37 %
71,441 0.48 %
Republican 5,190,179 33.55 %
5,330,536 35.67 %
Decline to State 2,990,143 19.33 %
2,433,134 16.28 %
Miscellaneous 97,601 0.63 %
123,412 0.83 %
TOTAL 15,468,551 100 %
14,945,031 100 %*
* 2004 total also includes voters affiliated with the Natural Law party,
which is no longer qualified in California.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 08 February 2008 )
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