The California Secretary of State Report of Registration is our site of the day

The California Secretary of State issues a report every odd-numbered year which reflects updates to the voter registration rolls, including removal of registrants who have passed away, moved out of state, or have been determined to be ineligible to vote--know in the common vernacular as the "dead wood." These figures also reflect the new registrants also added to the rolls.

The report, which issued yesterday, can be reviewed on the Secretary of State's site in PDF or Excel formats.

The headlines have referred to the fact that there are almost exactly 1 million fewer voters. The major trends show that Democrats and Republicans have retained almost exactly the same ratio in comparison to each other, and that in all the categories--major parties, minor parties and decline-to-state (DTS) there has been a loss in the absolute numbers of registrants. Registered Democrats now make up 42.5% of all potential voters and Republicans account for 34.2%.

However, the decline-to-state voters have diminished in their ranks by only 20,000 voters, and by virtue of the pie being smaller, now constitute 18.8% of all voters, an increase of one point in the last two years and in line with the historical trend for the 8 years recorded in this document and before then. DTS voters were only 12.9% of all registered voters in 1999.

There are many interesting sections available here, including registration breakdowns by counties, and Congressional, State Senate, Assembly, Supervisorial, and other districts. If you are a political junkie, you will want to check these out. There is also a historical section of statistics.

Other interesting factoids:

• The total percentage of registered voters as a portion of total eligible voters has declined from 74 percent to 69 percent since the February 10, 2005 Report of Registration, but is was 70.5% in 1999.

• This percent of registered voters compared to eligible voters is higher in the year following a Presidential election, and lower after a Gubernatorial election. Therefore, registration should increase between now and the next odd year report.

• Of the 58 counties in California, 35 counties have a Republican plurality and 22 have a Democratic plurality of registered voters. Alpine County has reported an equal number of registered Democrats and Republicans.

• Alameda has the highest percentage of Democrats, followed by Imperial and San Francisco Counties. San Francisco at 29.13% has the highest percentage of decline to state voters, who outnumber the 10.8% Republican voters by almost 3 to 1.

• Placer, Modoc, and Sutter Counties have the highest Republican registration.

• Humboldt County has the highest percentage of Green Party registrants at 5.2% and Lassen has the highest percentage of American Independent Party (AIP) voters at 4.3%. Greens are .89% of all registered voters in the state and the AIP has 2% in the state as a whole.

• Since June 19, 1995, (when NVRA began) through December 31, 2006, 18,079,620 people have registered or reregistered to vote in conjunction with “Motor Voter, reaching a peak in 2004, a Presidential election.