VOTER TURNOUT ALL-TIME LOW?

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO - Turnout of registered voters in Tuesday's statewide election may have hit a historical low for a presidential primary in California, according to preliminary figures released Wednesday.

Analysts said the poor turnout reflected voters' growing disconnect with politics and a sense that they still don't matter in primary season.

The preliminary tally of turnout for registered voters Tuesday was 38.8 percent, but Secretary of State Kevin Shelley's office cautioned that figures were still coming in for absentee and provisional ballots, meaning the number was likely to rise a little. It would have to rise above 41.88 percent to top the previous low set in 1996.

Record or not, analysts said voters simply had no motivation to show up for the presidential primary, even with the state moving the vote earlier in the mid-1990s in an effort to make California matter.

``I think that many Democrats felt (Tuesday) that their voice wasn't going to matter in terms of the presidential primary, and I think that depressed voter turnout among Democrats,'' said Mark Baldassare, senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California.

In addition, he said, events on election day itself also depressed turnout, as news reports came out in the early evening indicating a near-sweep for Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in other Super Tuesday states before the polls closed in California.

Another factor, he said, is that more voters over the years have left the party system and weren't interested in voting in the primary, even though nonpartisan, or decline-to-state, voters can still cast a party ballot in California.

The next lowest figure for a presidential primary in California was 41.88 percent in 1996, when Bill Clinton was seeking re-election and Bob Dole had sewn up the GOP nomination.

Prior to that, turnout had remained above 47 percent since 1940, according to information from Shelley's office that dates back to 1916. It hit a high mark of 72.6 percent in June 1976.

California's state and presidential primaries had been held in June from 1946 to 1994, but were moved up in an effort to make the state's voice count in national politics. However, other states also moved their primaries up.

Sen. Ross Johnson, R-Irvine, argues that the March primary, particularly regarding the vote for state offices, is an ``utterly failed experiment,'' and he has introduced a measure to move at least the state primary back to June.

Shelley believes the Legislature should at least examine the issue of moving the primary back to June, a spokesman said.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles County, officials reported few problems with the new InkaVote voting system.

``Overall we were very pleased,'' said Registrar-Recorder Chief Deputy Kristin Heffron.

Just five of the the county's 4,571 polling places opened after the 7 a.m. voting time. The biggest problem was voters who tried to use the ink pens to punch through the ballots.

``We expected there would be voters who had confusion about the ballots,'' Heffron said. ``Some punched out a piece of chad with their pens.''

Staff Writer Jason Kandel contributed to this report.

Harrison Sheppard, [phone]

harrison.sheppard(at)dailynews.com

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Chart:

Voter participation in California presidential primary elections

SOURCE: California Secretary of State