Traci Park elected in Westside district, putting a record 6 women on L.A. City Council.
Voter registration continues its slow march across the region – and now even into Hollywood, according to the state.
For the second straight election season that ended in May, the number of people registering to vote in California rose by 2,000 over the course of four months – a record for the state.
The tally, compiled by the nonpartisan California Secretary of State’s Office, was up nearly 3,000 from the prior year but was down from the 2010 total, which was itself down 3,000 from the previous presidential election in 2008.
The state also had a record number of unregistered voters by the end of May – 6,829, including 3,898 who haven’t yet filled out their registration cards. That’s nearly double the 4,936 who registered that time last fall.
It’s a stark contrast to May 2010, when the number of unregistered voters was just 583, the fewest since California began keeping records two decades ago.
For those numbers, it’s a continuation of what the state is seeing year after year. Voters are registering at twice the rate of new registrations in California.
The slow pace of new voter registrations is partly the result of the state’s population growth – the fastest in about a decade.
In the past four months, the state has registered 2,001 new residents to vote in the November election. There are 2,002 new registrants in the upcoming election, according to the state’s statistics.
There are now 3,856 unregistered voters, an increase of more than a third from the previous year.
The number of people who remain registered in California is not as big as the number of unregistered voters. The state now has 3,811 registered voters, an increase of 8,569, or a third, from last year.
State records on voter registration don’t include in-state voters because local election officials have the authority to identify them – a power the state typically doesn’t provide.
That has left the number of residents who haven’t voted through one of about 16 counties and cities, most of which have only slightly more than 2,000 registered voters.
That list includes
