Voter Registration Surge Reported

Tens of thousands of Californians either registered to vote or switched their party affiliations on Monday’s deadline--an above-average surge that may boost turnout for the state’s unusual March 7 presidential primary, election officials said.

Californians can vote for any presidential candidate in the primary, but to earn nominating delegates for that candidate, they must belong to his party.

In San Mateo County, that rule, which is new since the state’s 1996 primary, may have fueled as much as 80% of the last-minute traffic, elections manager Bill Jackson said. Other counties also reported that more voters than usual named a party or switched to another one.

Part of that increase may be attributable to John McCain’s California campaign, which registered voters at mass transit stations, supermarkets and other locations in an effort to attract independents and Democrats to their candidate.

McCain senior advisor Ken Khachigian said Tuesday he believed the campaign met its goal of persuading 30,000 voters--mainly in the Bay Area and San Diego--to register with the GOP.

“That’s about 1.5% of the Republican primary electorate,” he said, “so in a close race, it really would make a difference.”

San Diego County’s registrar reported that McCain supporters dropped off “fistfuls” of voter affidavits Monday, but had no specific numbers. San Mateo County reported that if there was a trend in party-switching, it was toward the Republicans.

Media coverage of the registration deadline, and particularly of California’s new primary rules, may have been what brought Californians to midnight registration drives Monday in their pajamas and slippers, said Alfie Charles, spokesman for the secretary of state’s office. But having a competitive presidential race and a relatively early primary also played a part.

“In every election, if there’s a horse race at the top of the ticket, voter registration goes up and so does participation,” Charles said. “When you add in the element of a presidential primary that’s really going to make a difference for California, that adds some enthusiasm to the process that wouldn’t otherwise be there.”

Compared to 1996, Los Angeles County received about 30% more new registrations or changes in the two days preceding Monday’s deadline, Registrar-Recorder Conny McCormack said.

Statewide, more than 100,000 changes were made to the 14.6-million-person voting roll, Charles estimated, but that number includes already registered voters making address changes.

Forty-two percent of the state’s registered voters turned out for the 1996 primary, Charles said. Estimates for this year’s contest will not be available for about three weeks.