Dismal election turnout

15 Dec, 2014 by John Seiler

The California Secretary of State’s office just released figures showing the Nov. 4 election suffered the worst turnout rate ever. According to the Capitol Weekly summary:

Less than a third of California’s eligible voters cast ballots on Nov. 4….

Of those who registered to vote, little better than four in every 10 – about 42 percent – actually voted, either in person or by mail, the secretary of state reported in its Statement of the Vote….

In Los Angeles County, the most populace county with more than 5,000 voting precincts and eight million eligible voters, about 31 percent of registered voters cast ballots, the lowest participation level of any of the 58 counties. Of the L.A. voters who were eligible to cast ballots, less than a fourth went to the polls.

Part of this, I think, was due to California now being a one-party state dominated by Democrats. Gov. Jerry Brown hardly even campaigned for re-election; and even for that, he mainly talked about passing his initiatives, Proposition 1, the water bonds, and Proposition 2, the rainy-day fund. If he didn’t care about his own re-election, why should anybody else?

Democrats easily swept all statewide elections for lieutenant governor, secretary of state, treasurer, etc. The six ballot measures generated little controversy. Three won easily and three lost easily.

Turnout certainly will be higher in Nov. 2016, for the presidential election. But even there, nowadays the Democratic nominee easily wins with a 3 million-plus vote margin. The presidential candidates from both parties campaign here only troll for campaign cash.

However, numerous ballot measures are expected to be put before voters. The government-employee unions will be rallying their membership to pass several measures to gouge taxpayers even more. Taxpayers’ rights groups will be campaigning to keep taxes here slightly less preposterously unreasonable.

Otherwise, for most voters democracy in the Golden State seems about as appealing as one of First Lady Michelle Obama’s school lunches.