Republican Voters at Lowest Level Ever in CA

Posted by Jack

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California has reached an all-time high of 18.2 million registered voters, while the number of registered Republicans has fallen below 30 percent, signaling a worrisome decline for the state’s minority party, officials said Friday.

In its final update before Tuesday’s general election, the secretary of state’s office said the number of registered voters has increased by 950,000 since the 2008 presidential contest. Officials attribute that surge in part to the state’s new online registration system, which helped many young, Democratic-leaning Californians sign up to vote this fall.

That system was seen as a threat to the California Republican Party, which has struggled to retain members, let alone add them. The secretary of state announced that Republicans now make up 29.3 percent of the state’s electorate, compared with 31.4 percent in 2008.

This appears to be the lowest ebb for the party since records have been available.

The percentage of voters registered without a party preference ­- or independent – has reached an all-time high in California, according to registration statistics released recently by the California Secretary of State’s office.

Over the past four years, the number of voters who didn’t register with a political party has increased by about 600,000, or 1.8 percent, according to the report. About one in five Californians currently does not affiliate with a political party, according to the report.