I wonder why?
My son's wife registered as a Republican in California. My son told her not to and registered as an Independent.
Some time later, my son received a notice about upcoming elections. His wife didn't.
When she looked into the matter she was told that she had been "de-registered". She asked why. She was told that perhaps it happened when she changed her address. When she asked by her husband wasn't "de-registered" she received no explanation but was told that she would be "re-registered".
Some months later, she decided to check to make sure. Yep! She had been "de-registered" again!
According to this site:
http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/jtf/JTF_LikelyVotersJTF.pdf
THE PUBLIC POLICY INSTITUE OF CALIFORNIA
At the close of registration for the June 2010 primary election, 17 million of the 23.5 million eligible adults in the state were registered to vote: 44.5% as Democrats, 30.8% as Republicans, 20.2% as decline to state or independents, and 4.5% as other parties.
The number of registered voters in the state has grown by 1.3 million since June 2006. The number of registered Democrats has grown from 6.7 to 7.6 million, and the number of independents from 3 to 3.4 million, while the number of Republicans edged down from 5.4 to 5.2 million.
Edit to add. Based on these figures:
“44.5% as Democrats, 30.8% as Republicans, 20.2% as decline to state or independents, and 4.5% as other parties.”
TURNOUT will be the key.
If the Independents and Undecideds swing towards the challengers, and the Republican turnout overtakes the Democratic turnout, the challengers can win in California.
It remains to be seen if this will be so.
Dick Morris, a long time pollster and political observer says that at this point in time, if a well known politician like Barbara Boxer cannot reach the 50% level in the polls, that means there are a lot of undecideds. And if history is any indication, undecideds tend to move AGAINST the incumbent by an 80% margin.