Voter registration climbs in Merced County as primary nears

The number of registered voters in Merced County has continued to rise as the June 7 election approaches, but it has yet to reach the peak of the last presidential election year, according to the Registrar of Voters Office.

As of Wednesday, the office tallied 89,500 registered voters in the county. The June 2012 presidential primary topped out at nearly 95,000, according to Registrar Barbara Levey.

“I was a little surprised it wasn’t higher already, that it hadn’t hit the 90,000 mark already,” she said.

Almost 2,400 people registered in the past month, according to records, and the paperwork continues to flow into the office. Levey said the primary has the potential to reach the same registration height as 2012, because residents can still sign up or change parties through May 23.

A combination of new voters and people who changed party preference in the past month pushed the number of the county’s Democrats up by more than 2,500, to 39,022. The Republican party added fewer than 500 in that time, to reach 28,010.

The smaller political parties saw up or down changes of a dozen or so during the month, while the voters who claimed “no party preference” fell by almost 600. No-party-preference voters cannot vote in some primaries. The Republican primary, for example, is open only to registered Republicans.

The driver pushing people to register may have been the highly contested primaries in several states, which pitted businessman Donald Trump against Sen. Ted Cruz for the Republican nomination. Then there’s the Democratic race between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Levey said it’s unclear what the departure of Cruz, who disbanded his run Tuesday, will mean for Merced County. She said she hopes people pay attention, noting that there are three county supervisor seats on the ballot.

On Tuesday, Trump’s overwhelming victory in Indiana – and Cruz’s withdrawal from the race – made it all but certain that California voters will not play a pivotal role in the GOP presidential primary.

“The California presidential primary is flat on its back,” said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and former speechwriter for Gov. Pete Wilson. “Back to irrelevancy.”

The result in Indiana ended hopes for a decisive June 7 primary in California, the first in decades. That possibility materialized for Republicans when Trump lost to Ohio Gov. John Kasich in Kasich’s home state in March, and it carried through to the California state party’s convention in Burlingame over the weekend.

The last time California’s June election played a decisive role in a presidential primary was in 1972, when the state went for George McGovern as the Democratic nominee.

On the Democratic side this year, Clinton is almost certain to be the nominee. Still, Sanders’ victory in Indiana on Tuesday promised to throw more energy into his already fervent base of support.

Back in Merced County, Levey said the registrar’s office is still preparing for a relatively high turnout. She’s planning to have extra poll staffing and the office is making sure its booths are in higher traffic areas.

“It still does matter, so we’re hoping people come out,” she said.

Sample ballots begin going out Monday. Levey recommended voters thumb through the ballots early to make sure they are correct.

If a voter is registered as having no party preference, there will be no presidential candidates listed on their sample ballot, but they can vote in the Democratic, American Independent or Libertarian primary if they contact the registrar of voters.

In the county-level races, if a Merced County supervisor candidate gets 50 percent of the vote plus one, that candidate wins the office. Otherwise, the top two vote-getters in any race will face off in November.

This story was originally published May 6, 2016 at 6:50 PM with the headline "Voter registration climbs in Merced County as primary nears."