14.5 Million Can Vote in Primary, Up from ’92

More than 14.5 million Californians are eligible to vote in Tuesday’s primary election, an increase of about 1 million from the last presidential primary in 1992, Secretary of State Bill Jones said Monday.

The million-vote gain in voter registration is consistent with increases between presidential election years in the past, he said. Registration usually is lower for the gubernatorial elections in between.

Republicans signed up 104,640 new voters during the final month of registration, compared to 64,100 for Democrats, Jones said. Helping drive up the number of Republicans was that the GOP presidential primary was still competitive when registration closed Feb. 26. President Clinton has no substantial Democratic opposition on the California ballot.

The two major parties usually conduct their major registration drives between the primary and general elections. The nation’s “motor voter” law, which allows registration at the Department of Motor Vehicles and other government offices, was in effect in California for eight months before the registration deadline, but officials said it seemed to be having only modest impact.

Of the 14,523,363 voters registered for the primary, 6,849,330 (47.2%) are Democrats and 5,373,746 (37%) are Republicans.

Totals for the six other officially recognized parties in California: American Independent, 255,444; Reform, 117,701; Natural Law, 99,643; Green, 83,523; Peace & Freedom, 70,572, and Libertarian 70,320.

There also were 1,551,006 registered as “decline to state,” California’s term for independent voters.