Voter Turnout Low in L.A. and All Over Calif.

Voter turnout was low in Los Angeles and throughout California this morning, election officials said, tentatively confirming earlier projections of the lowest turnout for a statewide election in nearly five decades.

The statewide turnout at noon was 12.15%, about 4% behind the 1984 primary day at the same hour.

Earlier, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State March Fong Eu said only 7% of the voters statewide had gone to the polls by 10 a.m. That was a third fewer voters than the turnout at the same hour in 1982’s primary, according to a spot-check of precincts in eight major counties.

Polls will be open statewide until 8 p.m.

Voter turnout was slightly higher in Northern California than Southern California.

The Sacramento turnout by 10 a.m. was 10%, and the San Mateo and Santa Clara County turnouts were 9.1% and 9% respectively, contrasted with 7.5% in Los Angeles, 10% in Riverside County and 6.8% in Ventura County.

Mixed Signals for Leaders

Those were mixed signals for the top contenders in the race for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate. Rep. Ed Zschau of Los Altos ran far ahead of Los Angeles television commentator Bruce Herschensohn in Northern California, while Herschensohn topped Zschau in Southern California in an election eve poll.

Eu’s pre-election projection, based on the relatively small number of sharply contested statewide races and a long-term downward trend in voter participation, was for 5.7 million of California’s 12.2 million voters to cast ballots today, which would be a 46-year low of 47% participation.