| CALIFORNIA | 55 Electoral Votes |
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| Population (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Calif. Secretary of State)
California has: 58 counties. Nine counties over 1 million: Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Clara, Alameda, Sacramento, and Contra Costa. > Six cities over 500,000: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, and Sacramento. > Government
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State of California Secretary of State American Indep. Party Los
Angeles Times Rough & Tumble
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Vote by Mail For the November general election, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order on May 8 requiring county officials to mail a ballot to every registered voter ahead of the November 3 general election. Republicans filed a lawsuit terming Newsom's action an unlawful power grab "violating eligible voters’ rights and creating an opportunity for fraud." The state legislature subsequently passed legislation requiring county officials to mail a ballot to every active registered voter (+). Also, on Sept. 28, 2020, Secretary of State Alex Padilla issued emergency regulations on signature verification, ballot processing and ballot counting (+). In October California Republicans stirred up a bit of controversy by putting rogue (unofficial) ballot drop boxes in several locations (+). Eligible to Register: 25,090,517. Total Registration: 22,047,448. Total voters: 17,785,151 Precinct voters 2,361,850 (13.28%) Vote by mail 15,423,301 (86.72%) The above vote by mail numbers are somewhat inflated as several counties "issued all ballots as vote-by-mail, including at in-person locations." |
Ballot Access California has six qualified political parties. One of those is the American Independent Party, which nominated Trump in 2016. In 2020 the AIP nominated Rocky De La Fuente and Kanye West. According to Ballot Access News the action occurred at the AIP's convention on Aug. 15. "The meeting was electronic with approximately 20 participants. The vote was unanimous, except for one abstention." The requirement for non-qualified, independent candidates for president is steep: one percent of the number of voters registered in the last general election or 196,964 signatures. Two third party presidential candidates filed lawsuits challenging the requirement in view of the pandemic and seeking ballot access: Don Blankenship (C) and Joseph Kishore (SEP). U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ruled against Kishore on July 20, 2020. [PDF] U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg ruled against Blankenship on Aug. 3, 2020. [PDF] |
Overview: The Nov. 3 election set
records for number of voters registered (22.0 million),
votes cast (17.8 million) and votes cast by mail (15.4
million). Turnout of registered voters was the
highest since 1976 and turnout of eligible voting age
population was the highest since 1952. Biden's
11.1 million votes and Trump's 6.0 million votes set
records for their respective
parties. Although the Biden-Harris ticket won a comfortable victory, Republicans did win back four of the U.S. House seats they had lost in 2018. Biden's 63.48% of the vote was the highest share since FDR achieved 66.95% against Alf Landon in 1936. Biden carried 35 counties to 23 for Trump; his winning margin was 5,103,821 votes (29.16 percentage points). Those 5.1 million votes accounted for 72.3% of Biden's national margin of 7,060,141 votes. Two Californians figured in vice presidential speculation. On Aug. 11, Biden announced Sen. Kamala Harris as his VP pick. Harris, who ended her own presidential campaign on Dec. 3, 2019, (+) was seen as a leading contender from early on. In late June there were also reports that Rep. Karen Bass, who represents CA-37 in Los Angeles, was being vetted. President Trump visited on Sept. 14 for a briefing on wildfires in the Sacramento area, and Sen. Harris and Gov. Newsom visited Auberry to address wildfires on Sept. 15. President Trump visited Newport Beach for a fundraiser on Oct. 18, and Ivanka Trump did fundraisers in Mountain View on Oct. 25 and Beverly Hills on Oct 26. California has long served as a cash cow for presidential campaigns; according to the FEC, the Biden campaign raised $141.7 million out California and the Trump campaign $69.6 million (>). The Biden campaign announced a couple of California staff who focused mainly on organizing phonebanking to battleground states (+); top Democratic officials also helped with GOTV in neighboring Nevada (+). Trump supporters showed their enthusiasm with caravans and other such events (+). [CASOS] | BALLOT [PDF] |
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| Eligible 25,251,216. Registered 20,660,465... Dem. 9,361,582, Rep. 4,937,986, AIP 600,057, Grn. 83,281, Lib. 175,352, P&F 95,242, Unknown 104,680, Other 120,494, NPP 5,181,791. Ballots Cast 9,687,076. |
| Democrats
Sanders 2,080,846 (36.0%), Biden 1,613,854 (27.9%), Warren 762,555 (13.2%), Bloomberg 701,803 (12.1%)... Total 5,784,330. details 495 Delegates: 271 District, 90 At-Large, 54 PLEO, 80 Unpledged. [PDF] |
Republicans
Trump 2,279,120 (92.2%), Weld 66,904 (2.7%), Walsh 64,749 (2.6%), De La Fuente 24,351 (1.0%), Matern 15,469 (0.6%), Ardini 12,857 (0.5%), Istvan 8,141(0.3%). Total: 2,471,591.
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Six parties conducted presidential primaries: Dem., Rep., AIP, Lib., Grn and P&F. In the Libertarian primary 13 candidates split the vote; Hornberger topped the field with 19.4% of the vote. Phil Collins won the AIP primary, Howie Hawkins won the Green primary and Gloria La Riva won the P&F primary.
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| 1992 | 1996 | 2000 | 2004 | 2008 | 2012 | 2016 |
| Clinton 46.01% |
Clinton 51.10% |
Gore 53.45% |
Kerry 54.41% |
Obama 61.01% |
Obama 60.24% |
Clinton 61.73% |
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| Voting Eligible
Population*:
25,278,803. VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 55.6%. CASOS VEP: 24,875,293 Registration: Dem. 8,720,417 (44.92%) Rep. 5,048,398 (26.01%) AIP 507,377 (2.61%) Grn 94,647 (0.49%) Lib. 139,805 (0.72%) P&F 75,640 (0.39%) Other 114,140 (0.59%) No Party Pref. 4,711,347 (24.27%) ...Total 19,411,771. > Voter Registration Deadline: Online or postmarked by Oct. 24, 2016. Vote by Mail Period: Oct. 10-Nov. 1, 2016. Vote by Mail: 8,443,594 [57.79% of Total Voters]. |
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Overview: The last Republican
presidential candidate to carry California was George
H.W. Bush in 1988. Democrats headed into this
election with a registration advantage of over 3.6
million voters (+). Trump-Pence did
get the nomination of the American Independent Party
(AIP),
California's third largest political party, at its convention on
Aug. 13. The Hispanic vote is very important in California. According to the Pew Research Center (>), the state has a Hispanic population of about 15 million, accounting for 39% of the total population, the second highest share of any state. 6.9 million of these people are eligible to vote, or 28% of the total eligible to vote. California had its share of fundraising visits, particularly on the Democratic side. With the state solidly in the Democratic column, activists focused their efforts on getting out the vote in battleground states (+). The outcome was most-lopsided result in decades as Clinton carried 33 counties to 25 for Trump, amassing a margin of 4,269,978 votes (30.11 percentage points). General Election Visits Clinton | Trump BALLOT [PDF] |
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| Voting Eligible
Population*: 23,620,070. VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 55.2%. Vote by Mail: 6,753,688 [51.16% of Total Voters]. Registration: Dem. 7,966,422 (43.66%) Rep. 5,356,608 (29.36%) AIP 477,129 (2.61%) Grn. 115,034 (0.63%) Lib. 108,736 (0.60%) P&F 61,987 (0.34%) AmElect 3,313 (0.02%) Other 336,196 (1.84%) Decline 3,820,545 (20.94%) ...Total 18,245,970. |
Total voters: 13,202,158. |
2012 Overview President Obama won the state's 55 electoral votes without difficulty and Democrats had success in congressional and state legislative races as well. Obama achieved a margin of 3,014,327 votes (23.12 percentage points) and carried 31 counties to 27 for Romney. More than half of voters cast the ballots by mail. Half a million fewer votes were cast than in 2008. General Election Details Obama | (Romney) BALLOT [PDF] |
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| Voting Eligible
Population*: 21,993,429. VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 61.7%. Mail in voting began on Oct. 6, 2008. Last day to request a vote-by-mail ballot was Oct. 28, 2008. Vote by Mail: 5,722,465 [41.64% of Total Voters]. Registration: Dem. 7,683,495 (44.40%) Rep. 5,428,052 (31.37%) AIP 370,405 (2.14%) Grn. 118,416 (0.68%) Lib. 83,574 (0.48%) P&F 56,350 (0.33%) Misc. 118,876 (0.69%) Decline 3,444,923 (19.91%) ...Total 17,304,091. |
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2008 Overview The Obama-Biden ticket easily won California, gaining a margin of 3,262,692 votes (24.06 percentage points), and carrying 34 counties to 24 for McCain. Both campaigns milked the state for money (visits) and "Tonight Show" appearances. In third party news the AIP disaffiliated from the Constitution Party and ran Alan Keyes as its nominee rather than Chuck Baldwin. Obama/Allies | McCain/Allies | Nader |
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| Voting Eligible Population*: 21,132,533. VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 58.8%. Registration: Dem. 7,120,425 (43.00%) Rep. 5,745,518 (34.70%) AIP 326,763 (1.97%) Grn. 160,579 (0.97%) Lib. 89,617 (0.54%) NL 28,779 (0.17%) P&F 68,100 (0.41%) Misc. 91,581 (0.55%) Decline 2,925,901 (17.67%) ...Total 16,557,273 |
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2004 Overview Although Republicans had made some headway by electing Gov. Schwarzenegger and cutting the Democrats' registration edge, California remained a "safe Kerry" state. Kerry gained a margin of 1,235,859 votes (9.98 percentage points); he won in 22 counties to Bush's 36. General Election Details Kerry/Democrats | Bush-Cheney '04 |
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| Voting
Eligible Population*: 19,685,258. VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 55.7%. 2,739,155 of the 11,142,843 total votes cast
were by absentee ballot -- 24.58%. Registration: Dem. 7,134,601 (45.4%) Rep. 5,485,492 (34.9%) AIP 321,838 (2.1%) Grn. 138,734 (0.9%) Lib. 94,900 (0.6%) Ref. 79,152 (0.5%) NL 58,275 (0.4%) Misc. 137,999 (0.9%) Decline 2,256,316 (14.4%) ...Total 15,707,307 |
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2000
Overview Brash talk and a significant investment of resources by the Bush campaign and the Republican party failed to pry California's 54 electors out of the Democratic column. As in other recent statewide elections, the Democrats' registration edge of about 10% held solid; Vice President Gore won with a margin of 1,293,774 votes (11.80 percentage points). Los Angeles County weighed in heavily, producing a plurality of more than 800,000 votes for Gore. Overall, Gore won in 20 counties to Bush's 38. Early in the campaign it appeared Ralph Nader might be a factor. From Aug. 1 to Election Day he spent 13 days campaigning in Calif., but he ended up not having much impact on Gore's showing. Pat Buchanan failed to make a mark despite significant TV buys. General Election Activity |
| 1992 and 1996 General Elections |
1992
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1996
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