On September 23, the California Secretary of State posted new registration data. Compared with the last tally, the May 19 tally, Democrats, Libertarians, Peace & Freedom, and Americans Elect gained as a percentage of the total; Republicans, American Independents, and Greens declined.
The May 2014 percentages were: Democratic 43.41%; Republican 28.42%; American Independent 2.6854%; Libertarian .66%; Green .619%; Peace & Freedom .4421%; Americans Elect .021%; independents and members of unqualified parties 23.75%.
The new tally is: Democratic 43.43%; Republican 28.23%; American Independent 2.6851%; Libertarian .67%; Green .618%; Peace & Freedom .4422%; Americans Elect .022%; independents and members of unqualified parties 23.91%. See the full report here.
California makes a distinction between those who have a preference for a nonqualified party and those who have expressed no party preference.
In the latest report, the share of those with No Party Preference increased from 21.16% to 23.08%, while those preferring a nonqualified party declined from 2.59% t0 0.83%. This was largely due to the reclassification of over 300,000 voters in Los Angeles County.
There was a significant drop in those classified as Other in Alameda County. This suggests that they may have switched their policy with respect to new registrations, but not done the wholesale reclassification that was done in Los Angeles County.
There were declines in registered voters of more than 2% in Amador, Lake, Lassen, Madera, Napa, Nevada, Plumas, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Sutter, and Yolo counties.
Kern County had a large decline for all parties other than the Democratic. This would imply either the Democrats convinced a large number of voters to switch to their party (quite unlikely), or there was a general purge followed by a Democratic registration drive.
Since these are largely smaller counties, it is likely the source of the increase in share for Peace&Freedom, who had a statewide decline.
Not surprised at the AIP’s slight drop in registration. When a party appears to do nothing to win new members, what can one expect. Bill Shearer would “turn over in his grave” if he knew the party he and his wife founded, and both virtually dedicated the remainder of their life to, has become somewhat of a “do nothing” party. What a shame and waste of opportunity.