Paul Mitchell, vice president of Sacramento-based Political Data Inc., noted Wednesday that people under 35 made up more than half of 2.3 million new voters who registered before the primary, indicating an enthusiasm for the contest.
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Additionally, a recent law allows ballots postmarked on Election Day to be counted up to three days after the election.
Thursday, during a post-election panel held by the organization “Future of California Elections”, election experts spoke about California’s accomplishments such as record voter registration, and need for improvement such as making sure no party preference voters… a voter block believed to favor Sanders could easily vote for president.
This year’s primary turnout surpasses the 31 percent of registered voters who participated in the 2012 presidential primary, but falls short of the 58 percent turnout in 2008.
Many absentee voters did not realize they needed to mail back postcards if they wanted to vote in the open Democratic presidential primary. “It’s harder for people to get out and go cast a ballot”.
Overall turnout missed expectations, and Hillary Clinton outperformed her poll numbers, winning by a landslide when polls indicated that the race should have been a nail-biter. While the results are unlikely to impact Clinton’s win in the state, Bernie Sanders said Thursday he expected the final tally would show a closer race-one more in keeping with polls that predicted a nail-biter.
Mindy Romero, director of the California Civic Engagement Project at UC Davis, said she was frustrated by Monday’s announcement, saying she expects it will reduce turnout by young voters, those 18 to 24.
Speaking at a Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce lunch, Padilla also said 6 million ballots have been counted so far. The secretary of state’s office declined to provide a turnout projection.
The glut of mail-in ballots that arrived at election offices and polling places on Tuesday or were mailed that day means the outcome of some district-level races will be decided in the coming days as county election officials continue to process the vote.
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Democrats seeking to unseat several Republican members of Congress from California are linking the incumbents to Donald Trump. “Those votes are already locked in”, Zilber said, adding, “I think Bernie Sanders supporters are still going to come out in force”. So the number of ballots on hand could also change.
