Hollister
– Voter registration in San Benito County has fallen by 7
percent since 2005.
Hollister – Voter registration in San Benito County has fallen by 7 percent since 2005.
But whether the reason for the decline is voter apathy, an increasingly mobile population, political overload, election office housekeeping or perhaps even a combination of factors seems open to debate.
County Clerk Joe Paul Gonzalez attributed most of the drop to a recent purge of relocated or deceased voters from the rolls.
“For years we’ve been carrying people in the active rolls who never received a sample ballot,” Gonzalez said.
He said his staff has been saving returned sample and absentee ballots. After the Nov. 6 election, county staff investigated the ballots, and if the voters had moved or died, their names were taken off the active voter list.
Gonzalez said thousands of local voters have been taken off the rolls since the election, but he acknowledged his explanation doesn’t rule out growing voter disenchantment.
“There’s no way of telling if it’s more related to voter apathy,” he said. “It’s hard to tell without making a survey.”
According to statistics released by the Secretary of State’s office, San Benito’s voter registration fell from 76.99 percent of eligible citizens to 70.20 percent between Feb. 10, 2005, and Feb. 10, 2007. The drop occurred across the board, rather than in a specific party.
The entire state saw a similar decrease during the same time period, with voter registration falling from 73.92 percent to 68.88 percent.
Secretary of State Debra Bowen issued a statement Monday noting the decline.
“Part of the drop in registration numbers can be attributed to better tracking and the removal of so-called ‘deadwood’ from the rolls, but the state’s population is continuing to grow, and the number of registered voters isn’t,” Bowen said. “This means fewer people are making the critical decisions that affect the lives of all 37 million Californians.”
The number of eligible voters counted in San Benito County has also fallen in the last two years, from 34,195 to 33,994.
San Benito has been called a bellwether of state politics, with its results often mirroring the statewide electorate’s. And even after the decrease, the breakdown among political parties continues to be very similar at the county and state levels.
Louise Ledesma, a member of the county’s Democratic Central Committee, said one reason fewer people might be registering to vote is the large number of recent elections, including the special election called by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005.
“I think a lot of people are getting tired of voting,” she said.
Ledesma, who sits on the Free Lance editorial board, said there’s also a larger trend of voter apathy, a trend she noticed among her students before she retired from her teaching position at San Benito High School.
“There was a lot of apathy over the years, and it’s been getting worse,” Ledesma said.
Marsha Wilcher, president of the San Benito County Republican Women, said the decline could also be caused by many county voters moving. Without an election this year, voters don’t have much incentive to re-register until 2008.
In the Nov. 6 election, 59.57 percent of registered San Benito County voters cast ballots, 3 percent higher than the state’s 56.19 percent participation rate.
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or [email protected].
