CA sees near record-low voter turnout as Bay Area votes continue to be counted

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- California may have seen the lowest voter turnout for a primary election in the state's history.

Only around 26% of registered voters in the state cast a ballot and numbers weren't much better here in the Bay Area.

Almost a week since Super Tuesday and the votes are still coming in at the Santa Clara Registrar of Voter's office.

Even with plenty of work to do, the overall turnout was not quite as "super" as the county wanted.

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"So far, we are seeing about 30% turnout rate as of all the ballots we've counted thus far," Santa Clara Co. Registrar of Voters Association communications officer Steve Goltiao said. "We still have about 57,000 that are still yet to be counted and we're still going to continue counting those as the week progresses."

Despite more counting, Santa Clara County will likely see lower turnout than the 2022 primary.

There was hope that vote-by-mail would increase participation, but data from the California Secretary of State's office shows declines across the Bay Area from the previous primary.

San Francisco County dropped from 46% in 2022 to 43% in 2024. Santa Clara County saw 30% of voters turnout in 2024 compared to around 36% in 2022. San Mateo with a dip from 38% in 2022 to 24% in 2024.

Alameda County, meanwhile, saw total voters cut in half from 33% in 2022 to only 14% in 2024.

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"So, we usually see lower turnout during primary elections versus the general election, but this primary was particularly low - maybe even a record low for turnout for California," San Jose State Political Science Professor Melinda Jackson said. "And frankly, we're seeing this across the country as well."

Jackson says low turnout leads to results that don't truly represent the population.

It's a concern of the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley.

Executive director Gabriela Chavez-Lopez and her team worked hard to turn the turnout tides around before the election.

She's disappointed to see such low numbers.

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"It's just not a top-priority for folks," Chavez-Lopez said. "They're trying to put food on the table, they're trying to make money in order to live here in Silicon Valley. So, voting tends to be put on the backburner for any folks and many working families, which we understand."

Chavez-Lopez wants to see changes made to increase turnout.

One way she says to do this is by eliminating the primary and moving to a ranked-choice voter system where voters rank candidates by preference.

"Sort of streamlining that process and meeting voters where they're at is something that ranked-choice voting does," Chavez-Lopez said. "The city of Oakland has it, the city of Sacramento has it. So I think, as the center of innovation, I believe that San Jose can do something similar."

She is looking for anything to try to increase participation on the heels of another low year.

More stories on 2024 California Primary Election here.

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