The Associated Press faced fierce backlash this week for declaring Hillary Clinton the victor of the Democratic primary on Monday night, before California, New Jersey, New Mexico, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Washington, D.C. had voted.
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The number that counts, however, is how many of those voters actually cast ballots, and that could be skewed even more toward Democrats because of the high-profile Clinton-Sanders duel and the personal antipathy that many Republicans harbor toward Trump.
New Jersey, Montana, New Mexico and South Dakota also have primaries today, while Democrats have a caucus in North Dakota.
More than 3.1 million Californians had cast ballots before the polls opened Tuesday, more than two-thirds of all voters in the 2014 primary. Statewide, almost three-quarters of Republican voters cast a ballot for him. LA Times says that California’s primary has become more like an “election week” than an election day. If he concedes-and it’s unlikely to happen early, given how long it could take to count all the votes in a close race – it’ll be a big deal.
“There were a couple of places that had stacks and stacks of Democratic ballots because they have stacks and stacks of Democratic voters”, Konopasek said.
According to aggregated data by Real Clear Politics based on three polls, Clinton is leading Sanders by just two points in California, where semi-open primary voting rules could work in Sanders’ advantage.
However, that count included unbound delegates, those who do not have to vote for him on the first ballot.
There have been few reports of problems at the polls Tuesday, amid projections of a much higher turnout than in 2014.
It’s primary day in California and the outcome is going to be significant for either Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton.
But it is lower than the historic 57.7 percent turnout in 2008, when California Democrats chose Hillary Clinton over Obama and Republicans picked John McCain. The numbers account for 44.7 percent of registered voters and 32.5 percent of eligible voters. In the Peninsula’s 24th Assembly District, Democrat Vicki Veenker has a lead of about 1,200 votes over Republican Peter Ohtaki.
But presidential elections draw more people to the polls and county clerks are expecting turnout to reflect the drawn-out contest for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.
Full results from the Associated Press news agency are available below.
Sanders has also influenced the race for Sam Farr’s congressional seat.
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Neither Republican Corey Stapleton, Democrat Monica Lindeen nor Libertarian Roger Roots have opposition for secretary of state, while incumbent Republican Tim Fox and Democrat Larry Jent do not face opposition from within their parties in the attorney general race.
