In San Diego County, registration is already higher than it was in the month before the 2008 general election, when a record number of Americans went to the polls and elected President Barack Obama. As of May 15, 1,501,148 county residents had registered. That’s compared to 1,409,229 in October 2008.
Last month, Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who oversees elections at the state level, said sustained interest in the primary campaigns (candidates rarely must make a run for California’s late-in-the-game primary voters) and aggressive registration efforts by the candidates (Bernie Sanders last week took credit for a 218 percent increase in Democratic registrants) contributed to the surge.
KPBS will be tracking what this unconventional election cycle means for local voter rolls through November with our Voter Registration Tracker.
We’ll also be using it to see how campaigns and volunteers do getting residents in San Diego City Council District 9 to register. That’s the Kensington and City Heights area where we’ve been checking in with voters for our California Counts election coverage. The district is home to one of the highest voter turnout precincts, Kensington, and lowest turnout precincts, Teralta.
As of May 15, about 46.7 percent — 55,595 — of residents eligible to vote in the district had registered. Countywide, 69 percent of eligible voters are registered.
Will District 9 registration catch up with the county? Will the county see record registration numbers? You can follow along through November here.