62% TURNOUT PREDICTED; ABSENTEE VOTING EXPECTED TO SET ANOTHER RECORD.

Byline: David R. Baker Daily News Staff Writer

Bucking expectations of low voter turnout, Secretary of State Bill Jones predicted Wednesday that 62 percent of California's eligible voters will participate in the November election, a higher percentage than in any of the state's gubernatorial contests since 1982.

Jones also forecast the number of Californians voting absentee would likely set another record in Tuesday's election, totaling perhaps one-fourth of all votes cast.

Los Angeles County officials have already received 497,055 requests for absentee ballots, well above the previous record of 486,116 set in 1996.

Jones staked his prediction of high turnout on the absentee requests, rising registration figures and voter interest in several key statewide campaigns.

But he also credited the efforts of his own office, working with county election officials, to clean up voter rolls throughout the state, removing duplicate names and entries for people who have died or moved elsewhere. During the last year, 850,000 names have been wiped from the rolls.

``The high level of deadwood on the voter files has depressed the state's turnout figures for years,'' Jones said in a statement issued by his office.

Had the bad entries remained, turnout would probably amount to 58 or 59 percent, he said.

Jones' predictions follow weeks of increasingly nervous speculation among politicians about how the ongoing presidential scandal might dampen voter participation in Tuesday's election.

When President Clinton first admitted a relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, some predicted that Democratic voters would skip the November balloting out of disgust.

But several political analysts said Wednesday that such predictions might have been hasty and that California Democrats seem, if anything, energized by the scandal. At the same time, voter registration drives have been signing up ever greater numbers of Latinos.

``You could have a million Latino voters, for the first time, in this election,'' said Matt Klink of the Los Angeles campaign consultant Cerrell Associates. ``That's significant.''

Republican strategist Allan Hoffenblum, who also publishes a bipartisan analysis of key campaigns, said there appear to be enough important races and initiatives on the ballot to draw voters to the polls.

``There's enough to get the juices going,'' he said. ``I've been saying all along that this Republican idea that only Republicans would turn out and the Democrats would stay home was a pipe dream.''

Hoffenblum said Jones' turnout predictions usually hit close to the mark.

Klink praised Jones' efforts to clear deadwood from the voter rolls, which should yield a more accurate picture of Californians' participation in elections.