More Californians were registered to vote in Tuesday’s statewide special election than in last year’s presidential election, according to research published Tuesday by the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies.
The researchers found just over 23 million adults have registered to vote in the state’s special election. That was about 465,000 more than the 22.6 million who registered to vote a year ago in the presidential election, which typically draws higher voter interest. The percentage of eligible citizens registering to vote this year inched up to 84.6% from 84% a year ago, the researchers reported.
Voter registration has increased over the past decade since California began automatically registering motorists to vote when they applied for or renewed a driver license, the researchers said, following a similar move by Oregon.
“This change made citizens’ right to vote not different from other rights, like free speech and due process, which do not require ‘opt in’ processes,” said IGS Co-Director G. Cristina Mora. “Eliminating such voting barriers has increased voter participation and diversity, the effects of which we are witnessing now.”
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While total registered voters this special general election is higher than in general elections for president, governor or special elections since 2000, the percentage of eligible voters who registered is down a bit from a high of 88.9% in 2021 who registered for the last statewide special general election, in which Gov. Gavin Newsom survived a recall attempt.
This year’s special general election features a single statewide ballot measure backed by Newsom and his fellow Democrats in the Legislature. Proposition 50 asks voters to increase his party’s likely representation in Congress by replacing independently drawn congressional district maps with new ones that would tilt five currently Republican-represented districts toward Democrats.
It remains to be seen how many voters turn out at the polls or return ballots mailed to every registered voter. Over the last 25 years, voter turnout — the percentage of registered voters who cast ballots — has ranged from a low of 42.4% in 2014, in which Gov. Jerry Brown was re-elected, to a high of 80.7% in 2020 when President Donald Trump lost re-election to former Vice President Joe Biden.
Turnout in California’s last special statewide general election in 2021 was 58.5%.
The proportion of voters returning ballots by mail — which was instituted for all voters in 2020 — was down to 80.8% in last year’s presidential election from a high of 91% in the 2021 special general election.
Using data from recent polling a week before Tuesday’s election, the researchers said that registered Democrats include larger proportions of women and voters under age 40, although younger voters comprise an even larger share of the state’s voters not registered with a political party. Republican voters tended to be older, with a larger share of Whites, married voters and homeowners.
