Posted on 11/02/2005 8:09:39 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO (AP) - Nearly 16 million Californians are eligible to vote in Tuesday's special election, and almost one-fifth of them are registered as independents, according to figures released Wednesday.
The number of registered voters represents a slight increase from the 2003 recall election that elevated Arnold Schwarzenegger to the governor's seat.
The secretary of state's office said 15.9 million - 70.7 percent of the state's eligible adults - registered to vote by the Oct. 24 deadline. That's up from the 15.4 million Californians who were registered to vote in the 2003 special election that recalled Gov. Gray Davis and elected Schwarzenegger to replace him.
But it's below the 16.5 million that qualified to vote in last November's presidential election.
Nearly 6.8 million registered as Democrats, or 42.7 percent of the electorate. The 5.5 million Republicans make up nearly 34.8 percent.
But both major parties have lost ground to independents. Those registering as decline-to-state have increased their share of the electorate to nearly 18.1 percent, up from 16 percent in 2003.
Overall, the percentage of Californians who are members of a political party has dropped from 83.3 percent to 81.4 percent during the last two years.
"At the moment, a lot of people regard both major parties as unattractive," said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California. "That's partly due to the polarization of politics. The Democrats might be a little too liberal and the Republicans a little too conservative."
Recent polls show that Democrats and independents are least likely to support Schwarzenegger's "year of reform" agenda. He is promoting four initiatives on Tuesday's ballot: Proposition 74, which would lengthen the time it takes teachers to gain tenure; Proposition 75, which requires unions to get members' permission to use dues for political purposes; Proposition 76, a state spending cap; and Proposition 77, a measure that would change the way congressional and legislative districts are drawn.
The ballot also has four other propositions, dealing with abortion, prescription drugs and the state's energy market.
29% less members of third parties.
Is this possibly disenfranchised democrats who are fed up with that party .. and have re-registered as independents ..??
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