California’s percentage of ‘no party preference’ voters edges up

Just days before the June 3 primary, California’s chief elections officer reported Friday that the percentage of voters registered with no party preference has increased while the percentages for registered Republicans and Democrats declined.

Compared with four years ago, the number of registered voters has increased by about 1%, to 73.3% of the number of people eligible to register, according to the report by Secretary of State Debra Bowen.

The percentage of voters who registered with no party preference has gone from 20.17% four years ago to 21.16% today, an increase of about 325,000 voters, the report said.

Republicans made up 30.8% of the state’s registered voters four years ago, and account for 28.42% today, it said. The latter figure is also down from the number in the last report on April 4, when Republicans made up 28.6% of voters.

Democrats made up 44.49% of California registered voters during the last statewide election four years ago; today they account for 43.41%. The April 4 report showed Democrats making up 43.5% of voters.

In all, 17,722,006 Californians are registered to vote in Tuesday’s primary election, which is down from the record of more than 18 million Californians who were registered to vote in the last presidential election, in 2012.

Polls will be open on election day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., but many people have already cast their ballots.

“Millions of vote-by-mail ballots have been issued to voters for Tuesday’s primary election,” Bowen said. “If you still have your vote-by-mail ballot, be safe and hand-deliver it to your county elections office or any polling place in the county in which you are registered.”

She said vote-by-mail ballots must be turned in to county elections officials by 8 p.m. on election day, and that “postmarks don’t count.”