BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — According to the Kern County elections website, there’s been an increase in voter registration so far this year. As of July, data shows about 46,000 people have registered to vote bringing the total number of registered voters here to about 438,000.
“More people are registering to vote right, I think we have much more concerted efforts by non-profit organizations on the ground, like the Delores Huerta Foundation. You have a lot of mobilization also coming from the Democratic women of Kern,” said Ivy Cargile, Associate professor of Political Science at CSUB.
Cargile with CSUB said grassroots mobilization of voters across the county has led to an increase in registrations. 23ABC looked back at voter registration data going to the 2008 election from the California secretary of state’s website.
It shows in the past decade, registration has increased about 20%. In 2008, voter registration was at about 66% currently, about 83% of the eligible voting population is registered to vote here in Kern County.
That compares to about 89% of eligible voters registered in California.
As for a breakdown of registrations by the political parties the county still has a majority of Republican voters.
But, between 2008 and this year, the percentage of Republican registered voters steadily decreased from 45% to about 37%.
The percentage of Democratic voters hasn’t changed much from 2008 to this year. It’s dipped slightly from 36% to 34%. Meanwhile, voters with no party preference increased in the last 13 years by 6% going from 15% up to 21% this year.
By 2018, the difference between both parties was less than 2% and since then both the Democrats and GOP have remained steady.
“With the 2016 election, I think people where your potential voters were awakened to possibly a government that they did agree with or that they didn’t agree with,” said Cargile. “And so got registered and actually showed up to the voting booth on election day, for the midterm, and even for the 2020 presidential election. And so now the hope is that people will also lend their voice on the 14th also for the recall election.”
