On November 2, the California Secretary of State published the voter registration tally as of October 22, 2012. The previous official state tally had been as of September 7. By far the most dramatic change between those two dates was the increase in the Libertarian registration, from 94,620 in September, to 108,736 in October. The party’s percentage of the total registration increased in 56 of the 58 counties; only two of California’s smallest-population counties, Mariposa and Mono, declined.
Unless the definition of “party” is amended, parties will go off the ballot in November 2014 unless they have registration of at least 1% of the number of votes cast in November 2014. No one can know what that number will be. But it probably will be less than 10,873,600, because the November 2010 turnout was 10,300,800. Therefore, the Libertarian Party can reasonably expect to meet the requirement, although any change in the party’s numbers by then is possible, in either direction.
Other parties that increased their share of the registration include the Democratic, American Independent, Americans Elect, and Justice Parties.
The number of voters registered “No party preference” declined slightly. Below are the September 2012 percentages, and the October 2012 percentages, for each party and for independents:
Democratic 43.33%, 43.66%
Republican 30.11%, 29.36%
Amer. Indp. 2.52%, 2.61%
Green .634%, .630%
Libertarian .548%, .596%
Peace & Freedom .343%, .340%
Amer. Elect .017%, .018%
non-qualified parties 1.22%, 1.84%
no party preference 21.28%, 20.94%
Among the unqualified parties, the Reform Party declined in raw numbers, the Justice Party increased in both raw numbers and percentagewise, and the Constitution Party increased in raw numbers but declined percentagewise.
