Record 3.9 Million Voters Are Registered in County

The largest number of potential voters in history have registered in Los Angeles County, making the nation’s biggest county more of an electoral prize than ever in the upcoming presidential race and other campaigns.

County Registrar-Recorder and Clerk Conny McCormack said that 3.9 million residents were registered to vote as of the Oct. 7 deadline for most residents. As many as 21,000 new citizens scheduled to be sworn in during the next few days can register until Oct. 29. They will only be allowed to vote in person at the registrar’s headquarters in Norwalk.

About 2.1 million people are registered as Democrats and 1.2 million as Republicans, a 54%-31% split. Others are registered as nonpartisan, 434,857; American Independent, 59,759; Natural Law, 30,676; Peace and Freedom, 22,389; Reform, 21,635; Libertarian, 15,848 and Green, 13,608.

There are 237,000 more voters than in the spring primary, with newly registered Democrats outpacing Republicans three to one.

County Democrats have seized on the numbers as a good omen for President Clinton and Democratic candidates for state and congressional elections, saying they make a traditional Democratic stronghold even stronger.

“People generally do not register in large amounts unless there is a reason for that, and I believe it is because of the presidential race and their strong feelings for President Clinton,” said county Democratic Party Chairman Garry Shay. He said the county will be critical to either party in winning the presidential race and other campaigns, and key to Democrats’ hopes of recapturing control of Congress.

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Republicans, however, say they too have high hopes that a successful voter registration drive will help them on Nov. 5.

“We held our own, basically,” said Andrew Hopwood, the GOP’s county chairman. There are a record number of registered Republicans in the county, he said, adding that Democrats “generally . . . have a much higher crossover vote than Republicans” and could support Bob Dole for president and the Republicans running for state and congressional offices.

“It’s going to be difficult for Dole to win the county, but I think if we end up with a good turnout and some crossover, I think we could gain one or two seats,” Hopwood said.