It’s Official: California Presidential Primary Set a Record for Turnout—Why This is Good News for State’s Democrats in November

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

Late yesterday, the California Secretary of State’s office certified the results of the February 5, 2008 Presidential primary election and they show that a record 9.1 million Californians voted. This eclipsed the record for numbers of voters in a primary set in March of 2000 when 7.8 million Californians voted, with Al Gore winning the Democratic race and George W. Bush the Republican race in the state.

As for turnout, 57.71% of registered voters cast ballots, making it the highest primary turnout on a percentage basis since 1980. The highest-ever percentage turnout in a primary was nearly 73% in 1976.

Secretary of State Debra Bowen, California’s chief elections officer, said: “The closeness of the Republican and Democratic contests, and the ability to truly help pick the next presidential nominees, clearly motivated Californians to head to the polls in record numbers for a primary election.” That is an accurate assessment.

Bowen also said: “I hope voters, particularly people who registered for the first time to vote in the February election, will keep up the momentum and head to the polls again in June and November.” Therein lies the key to the November election.

Not only was the turnout of registered voters high, but the percentage of those who turned out compared with the percent of those eligible to register to vote in the first place was higher than it has been since 1980. In other words—the voter registration rate is up in addition to the turnout being up. And—it’s Democrats who are turning out to vote.

There were 2.1 million more votes cast in the Democratic primary for President than in the Republican primary: 5,066,993 votes in the Democratic versus 2,932,811 in the Republican primary—or a 63% Democratic to 37% Republican advantage.

Democrats had more voters than Republicans in areas of the state normally won by the GOP: the counties of Fresno, Merced, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Stanislaus, and Tulare. These are great numbers. And it’s not just coming from independent or Decline to State (DTS) voters. 74.3% of registered Democrats voted, compared to 58.9% of Republicans, and only 23.3% of DTS voters.