I respectfully disagree with Mr. Frank D. Russo

[rumpel]

So far, out of 15,837,108 registered voters in the state, 7,919,490 votes have been tallied. In 2002, the last election for governor (other than the recall election), fewer voters voted, 7,594, 228 out of 15,303,469, according to one set of information from the Secretary of State's office.

We had more registered voters in the state at the time of the 2005 special election. There were 15,891,482 voters then, even though it was an "off" year. 7,968,751 voted in that election or 50.1% considered very high for a special election.

In the recall election of 2003, another "special" election, there was a 61.2% turnout--extraordinarily high. 9,415,860 of 15,380,536 voted.

The high point for registered voters in the state was in 2004, a Presidential election year where interest was high in the Bush-Kerry race. California had 16,557,273 votes and there was a turnout of 75.9% or 12,572,735 voters.

So, the numbers of registered voters has declined and when when one considers the increases in the state's population and in the number of eligible voters, this figure is more dramatic. Combine that with a low turnout and the divide between those who vote and don't is the largest ever. The concerns of the Public Policy Institute of California study, The Exclusive Electorate, we reported on are all the more important.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=459181&mesg_id=459256

which is based on this report, (which I have not read yet)
California's Exclusive Electorate
http://www.ppic.org/main/publication.asp?i=705

Registration and mailing problems have persistently been present in great numbers at least from the time I started watching complaints by voters - it outnumbers any other complaint in the State. The mismanagement of actual voter registrations needs to be included, investigated and remedied -
As far as LA County goes - I highly suspect since 1999 when the database system was changed from IBM to Diebold we have had a systematic problem - whether this is a deliberate or incompetence issue remains to be seen.

my 2 cents

[Wilms]

1. It wouldn't have to take this long to HCPB's.

But I take it your post is about the low number of registered voters, given the population increase, perhaps as a result of faulty or fraudulent voter database management. Correct?