California third parties and independents are making steady progress in country’s largest state
On February 22, the California Secretary of State published voter registration data as of January 5, 2016. The last tally had been as of February 10, 2015. The number of registered voters declined over the past year. The February 2015 total was 17,717,936; the new total is 17,259,413.
No new parties qualified as a result of the new tally. If any previously unqualified party had as many as 56,957 registrants in this tally, it would be qualified for both 2016 and 2018. But no such party qualified. The Reform Party has asked to be a political body, and to have a tally, but it did not make the request in time for this tally. It probably has about 15,000 registrants. The largest political body in the January 4, 2016 tally is the Constitution Party, which has 338 registrants. In February 2015 it had had 325. Unqualified parties can still participate in the November 2016 presidential election if they obtain enough registrations by July 11, 2016.
Parties that declined, as a share of the registration, between February 2015 and January 2016, are: Democratic, from 43.15% to 43.10%; Republican, from 27.98% to 27.62%; Green, from .62% to .59%; and Peace & Freedom, from .442% to .438%.
Parties that increased their share between February 2015 and January 2016 are: American Independent, from 2.71% to 2.73%; and Libertarian, from .69% to .70%. Independents plus unqualified parties grew from 24.41% to 24.81%.
The March 1, 2016 printed BAN will have a chart showing the number of registered voters in each party, in each state.
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