On February 18, the California Secretary of State released new registration data, the first state tally since the tally of February 10, 2013.
The new tally shows fewer registered voters than the tally from February 2013, because during the interval counties have purged deadwood from the list. Among the parties that were qualified during 2013, the new percentages for each are: Democratic 43.58%, Republican 28.73%, American Independent 2.66%, Libertarian .64%, Green .62%, Peace & Freedom .43%, Americans Elect .0197%.
The February 2013 percentages for those parties were: Democratic 43.93%, Republican 28.94%, American Independent 2.64%, Green .63%, Libertarian .61%, Peace & Freedom .34%, Americans Elect .0189%.
The number of registered voters who are not members of any party is difficult to know, because some counties now put voters who leave the party question blank into the “other parties” category, which also includes people are registered into unqualified parties. In the new report, “no party preference” includes 20.94%, and “other” includes 2.39%. By contrast, in the February 2013 tally, “no party preference” was at 20.86% and “other” was 2.04%.
Among the unqualified parties, the Reform Party continues to be the largest by far, with 16,377 registrants, compared to 16,583 in February 2013. Constitution is now at 355, compared to 304 in February 2013. Justice is now at 291, compared to 286 in February 2013.
The new tally is the first tally at which Libertarians outnumber Greens, since the Green registration drive that put it on the ballot in 1991.
Would be nice if the article mentioned whether or not this was a new high for the LP, and/or other parties. (right in the article), if that info is available.
The only qualified parties that hit a new high for number of registrants are the Libertarian Party and Americans Elect.
In Sacramento County, when voters leaves the party section blank they are automaticly registered into “No Party Preference” which seems unfair but they point to the California Elections Code