Online voter registration boosted turnout, data suggest

Online voter registration may have done more than simply lengthen voter rolls -- it also seems to have boosted turnout on election day in California, according to new data released Friday.

Political Data Inc. has been crunching the numbers from the Nov. 6 election, and found that voter turnout was higher among Californians who registered online.

For example, in Sacramento County, turnout for online registrants was 84.7%, 10 points higher than the county average. There was a similar gap in Orange County, and an even wider difference in Fresno County.

[Updated 11:25 a.m.: Political Data Inc. collected the data directly from county officials, who identified which voters registered online, according to the company's vice president, Paul Mitchell.]

The numbers were released by Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), who wrote the bill allowing Californians to register to vote online.

“I could not be more pleased with the results of online voter registration,” Yee said in a statement. “The numbers are overwhelming."

Yee is hoping his election-related legislation will slingshot him into the California secretary of state's office -- he plans to run for the position in 2014 when incumbent Debra Bowen leaves because of term limits.

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Photo: Voters cast their ballots as swimmers take laps at Echo Park pool on election day in Los Angeles. Credit: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times

No voters at these polls

There were no voters at the polls in Alpine County on Tuesday. Even so it will probably log the highest voter turnout rate in all of California.

Tucked in the crook of the state below Lake Tahoe, Alpine County has entirely mail-order elections. The remote spot has just 1,102 residents spread over more than 700 square miles of rocky incline, and none concentrated enough in any one place to warrant a polling booth, said County Clerk Barbara Howard, who does double duty as registrar of voters. Thus all county residents cast their votes by mail.

Alpine in the June primary had the highest voter turnout rate in California, 59% contrasted with the statewide average of 31%. For the general election, Howard said she sent out ballots to 773 registered voters and expects to get most all of them back by the end of the day.

"We have a high turnout rate because of mail-in voting," she said. "It's worked out well."

One other California county is also so spread out that it has no polls. The 2,200 registered voters in Sierra County, north of Alpine, also do their voting by mail.

Assisting in Alpine's ballot collection is acting postmaster Sherlyn Armstrong, who keeps an eye out for the bright yellow envelopes at the county seat in Markleeville and sets them aside for Howard. Alpine's high voter turnout strikes her. "I've never seen such a politically minded county," she said, guessing that engagement reflects the prominence of government -- county, state or federal -- as the region's biggest employer.

When polling ends Tuesday, Howard will open up the board of supervisors' office for county residents to watch as the paper ballots are counted. She'll also set out cookies.

The central count attracts candidates, families and friends. "It's almost a party," said local writer Irving Krauss, 86, a local Democratic leader.

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Mass mail-in vote could mean delays in the count

With a record 9.2 million ballots mailed out for today's election, California officials expect delays in deciding the outcomes of races, especially close ones.

Following a trend set in the June primary, this is predicted to be the second time more Californians vote by mail than in person at the poll. Because the signatures on every one of those paper ballots must be checked by hand against voter registration cards, that means days and possibly weeks until all votes are counted.

Matching signatures is slow work, made even slower because would-be voters' handwriting can change over time or they write their name differently from when they registered. The rejection rate for mailed in ballots in the June primary ran as high as 10% in Kern County, but statewide averaged 2%, county data collected by the Secretary of State's office show.

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"We're into accuracy, not speed, in California," Nicole Winger, deputy communications director for Secretary of State Debra Bowen, said Tuesday. "It will be a couple of weeks for any really tight races."

More than 65% of votes cast in the June primary came in through the mail or were dropped off at polls on election day. No matter what the postmark, no mailed ballots are accepted after polls close.

To meet the challenge of hand-processing more than half of today's expected 12 million votes, county election officials were allowed to begin opening and validating mailed ballots last week. They have an additional 28 days from now to complete the task and post their results to the secretary of state.

Though polls close at 8 p.m., counties are not required to post their first round of results until 10 p.m. Winger said some of the more remote of the state's 24,000 polling places need the time. For instance, ballots collected on Catalina Island are sent in by helicopter.

Voters can check to see whether their mail-in ballot was received at this state site: http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-status/

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Photo: Ryan Ching, a clerk, loads and sorts vote-by-mail ballots into a sorting machine at the Los Angeles County Registrar's office in Norwalk. Creidt: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

More than 500,000 already have voted by mail, L.A. County says

More than 549,000 mail ballots already have been returned to Los Angeles County elections officials. That's more than 10% of the county's registered voters, officials said Thursday.

Democratic ballots -- 277,741 -- made up the largest number of those returned by  2:30 p.m., the L.A. County registrar-recorder's office said. Republicans had returned 162,788 of the ballots, and voters without a party preference accounted for another 71,426.

Ballots cannot be counted until the polls close on election day, Nov. 6.

Mail voters who wish to see whether the county has received their ballots may do so  by signing on to lavote.net and  clicking on the "vote by mail status" button.

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Photo: Voting at a Van Nuys restaurant during the June primary. Credit: Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times

L.A. County reports record high voter registration

A record 4,674,338 people are registered to vote in Los Angeles County,  giving the county an electorate larger than those in 42 states, elections officials reported Monday.

More than 91,000 were added to the rolls on Oct. 22 alone, the last day to register to vote in the Nov. 6 election. County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan said most of those new voters were added through California's new online registration system.

"Online voter registration offers increased accessibility and... convenience  for our community," Logan said in a statement released with the county's preliminary voter registration report.

Some other interesting factoids contained in the three-page report:

* Nearly 1.3 million, or 27% of voters, are signed up to  permanently cast  their ballots by mail.

* Democrats comprise 50% of those registered, while Republicans account for 22% and 19% are listed as "decline to state," or having no party preference. The rest belong to minor parties.

*Voters under 30 now make up the largest age group, accounting for one in five registered.

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Photo: Voters cast ballots at a Van Nuys restaurant during the June primary. Credit: Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times

 

Online registration boosts voter rolls sharply, officials say

A record 150,000 new voters were added to the rolls last month, Los Angeles County elections officials said Wednesday.

Officials attributed much of the increase to California's new online voter registration system.

"Online voters registration is fast, convenient and secure," county Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan said in a statement. "In a short time we have seen the impact of this expanded access."

Loan said there are about 3 million county residents who are eligible to vote but are not registered.   They have until Oct. 22 to do so in order to participate in the Nov. 6 election.

Online voter registration is available here.

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Photo: Voters cast ballots at a Van Nuys restaurant during the June 5 primary. Credit: Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times

Voter groups spearheading daylong registration drive Tuesday

A broad coalition of groups across Los Angeles County is sponsoring a daylong series of events Tuesday aimed at getting eligible citizens to register to vote in the Nov. 6 elections.

Black Eyed Peas fans can hear Taboo join with local officials at a noon news conference at Cal State L.A., and commuters can register at Union Station downtown and aboard Metrolink trains.

Starting at 6 p.m.,  rapper and radio personality Maya Jupiter will headline a National Voter Registration Day at MacArthur Park that will feature food vendors and local artists.

Several organizations, along with the county registrar-recorder's office, are leading the daylong events. The groups include Voto Latino, Rock the Vote, the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles, the California Participation Project, California Common Cause and others.

Similar voter registration events will be taking place throughout the country on the same day. For more details and a list of events, go to www.nationalvoterregistrationday.org.

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Photo: Voters cast ballots at a Van Nuys restaurant during the June 5 primary. Credit: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times

Independent voters reach record in California

More Californians than ever before are registered to vote without affiliating with a political party, Secretary of State Debra Bowen said Friday.

Bowen said the latest registration numbers show 3,672,229, or more than one-fifth of those on the voter rolls, listed no party preference.

Bowen said registration overall  is up from four years ago.  Today, 17,259,680 Californians--72.6% of eligible residents--are on the voter rolls, a gain of more than 1 million from September 2008.

Of those affiliating with a party, 43% are Democrats and 30% are Republicans.  Most of the rest belong to one of the five minor parties recognized by the state: American Independent, Americans Elect, Green, Libertarian and Peace and Freedom.

Earlier this week, Bowen's office launched an online voter registration system, www.RegistertoVote.ca.gov. For those who prefer the traditional method,  paper registration forms are available throughout the state at fire stations, public libraries, U.S. post offices, Department of Motor Vehicle office and from county elections officials.

The deadline for registering to vote in the Nov. 6 election is Oct. 22.

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Photo: Election clerk Michael Daniels collects a vote-by-mail ballot from a voter in Sacramento for the June 5 primary.  Credit: Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press

 

 

 

 

Mail ballots for June primary now going out

Today is the day elections officials started sending out vote-by-mail ballots for the June 5 primary.

The ballots are on their way to permanent mail voters and to the early birds who already have requested them.

Other voters can request mail ballots, from the registrars of the county they live in, until May 29. 

May 21 is the last day to register to vote in this year’s primary, which will mark the first widespread use of California’s new elections system.  Under the system, approved by the state’s voters in 2010, the party primaries are a thing of the past for all but the office of president and for county central committees.  

This time, all voters will get a single ballot listing every candidate for their congressional  and state legislative districts.  The top two finishers, regardless of party affiliation, will advance to the November general election.

Now that the mail ballots are on their way, look for an increase in political mail and cable TV and radio ads in many of the  races for 53 congressional, 20 state Senate and 50 Assembly seats. Also on the ballot are two statewide ballot propositions and 23 mostly unknown candidates challenging Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California), who is seeking re-election.

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Photo: Ryan Ching prepares to load mail ballots into a sorting machine at the Los Angeles County registrar's office for the 2010 general election. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

Voter registration numbers show parties' decline

The growth in “decline to state” voters in California continues to climb, while both the Democratic and Republican parties saw their voter rolls dip over the past year, new statewide voter registration figures show.

One in five California voters--21%--has declined to claim membership to any political party,  according to the secretary of state’s Jan. 3 Report of Registration. (http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ror/ror-pages/154day-presprim-12/)

Despite the slip, however, the Democrats maintained a substantial advantage over the GOP, accounting for 44% of the registered voters in California compared with 30% for Republicans. Both parties saw a drop of about half a percentage point over the last year.

 “It’s been this way for two decades," said Allan Hoffenblum, a former GOP strategist who analyzes election contests in his nonpartisan California Target Book. "The Republican Party’s greatest problem, as far as its ability to increase the number of Republican legislators, continues to be the weak registration numbers."

The Democratic Party increased its edge in voter registration in California’s newly drawn congressional districts, which could aid the party’s efforts of recapturing the House of Representatives in Washington. Democrats account for a majority of voters in 39 of California’s 53 congressional districts, compared to a majority in 33 a year ago. The state’s congressional delegation is represented by 34 Democrats and 19 Republicans.

Republicans continue to hold a slight edge in California’s counties, holding a majority of voters in 30 of the 58 counties, the voter registration report shows. That number has been on the decline, however, since 2003 when the GOP had a majority in 37 counties. Democrats now make up a thin majority of voters in San Diego County, where the GOP held a slight edge a year ago, the report shows.

Statewide, the number of independent, decline-to-state voters now stands at 21%, double the number that registered with no party preference in 1995.

There were 17 million Californians who had registered to vote as of Jan. 3, about 72% of those eligible to do so, the state report showed.

Hoffenblum said it will be difficult to predict how the new voter numbers will influence races for the state Senate and Assembly. Not only has redistricting scrambled the political playing field, but California also will be using its new “top-two” primary system that sends the two candidates with the most votes to the general election.

“We’re going to have more competitive races in November than we’ve had in two decades," Hoffenblum said.  “Voters have always said now is the time for change. They won’t find a better election cycle to make change."

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