‘It was kind of an election about nothing.’ Why turnout for California primary was low

Millions of Californians cast ballots in Tuesday’s primary — but less than one-third of all voters likely helped select the candidates who will compete in November.

About 4.1 million of the 21.9 million Golden State residents who received ballots — roughly 19% — had them counted as of mid-morning Wednesday, according to Political Data Inc.’s Primary Ballot Tracker.

By the time poll workers finish processing ballots, around 30% of voters will likely have participated in the statewide election, said Paul Mitchell, vice president of Political Data, Inc.

The ballots counted so far show 52% of voters who participated in the primary were Democrats, 49% were 65 or older and 69% were white.

Although the turnout percentage will likely be low, California has continued to accumulate more and more voters over the years, meaning “the percentage isn’t really a fair metric,” Mitchell said.

“It’s low turnout, but it’s not like it’s the worst turnout ever,” he said. “We’ve had elections with fewer voters.”

No exciting top-ticket race

Most voters simply chose to sit out an election that didn’t give Democrats much of a reason to get excited, campaign consultants said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, who’s running for his second term, was winning his primary with 56.3% of the vote as of early Wednesday, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. His closest competitor, State Sen. Brian Dahle, R-Bieber, trailed with just 16.8%.

“It’s horrible, because when you have a primary election with nothing at the top of the ticket driving voters, turnout’s going to be low,” said Matt Rexroad, a Republican campaign strategist.

Rexroad compared the race to the state’s 2014 primary, when former Gov. Jerry Brown was running for re-election against few bona fide competitors. About 25.2% of registered voters participated, the lowest turnout for a primary to that point, the Secretary of State’s Office reported.

“There’s really no reason right now for Democrats to go to the polls,” Rexroad said. “They’re not very fired up.”

Democratic strategist Andrew Acosta agreed, saying “voters aren’t excited” about state Assembly and City Council races.

“It was kind of an election about nothing,” he said.

Democrats may also end up fighting an uphill battle in November, Acosta said. While they enjoy an advantage over Republicans in voter registration, that can be a liability if Democrats are indifferent to the election.

“If folks aren’t coming out, the registration all of a sudden becomes a problem for us,” Acosta said.

Primary not inspiring to California Democrats

Democratic voters casting ballots Tuesday in Roseville expressed concerns about a handful of issues, including abortion rights, gun control and the drought.

But they didn’t find the primary particularly inspiring.

“I think people are just burned out about it all,” Aaron Holby said. “Honestly, I got the ballot weeks ago, and I could have easily forgotten about it too.”

Patricia Mericantante blamed low turnout on voters “(feeling) like they don’t have a lot of choices.”

“Even though there’s like a hundred names on there, there’s not a lot of really good choices of people running for offices,” Mericantante said. “And in this election, there was no initiatives or anything like that, so it’s just the people.”

The Bee’s Owen Tucker-Smith and Julietta Bisharyan contributed to this story.

This story was originally published June 8, 2022 at 10:29 AM.