This is the first year that Californians have been able to register or re-register to vote online. And the number of people who have done so suggests that the program has been a great success thus far. Read More
California’s new online voter registration process added more than 614,000 registered voters to today’s state electorate — almost half of them registered as Democrats. But beyond the presidential race, experts say, party officials shouldn’t count on support from such first-time voters.
Younger people and first-time voters tend to vote more independently and less along party lines than other voters, noted Corey Cook, an associate professor of politics at the University of San Francisco. New voters also tend to vote for the president and then leave many other items blank on their ballots.
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Federal election monitors might conjure up visions of the Balkan states or the Jim Crow South, but if they come to San Francisco in November, it will not be the first time, political observers say.
“It’s not like Jimmy Carter going to Africa,” said political consultant Jim Ross, who helped put Mayor Gavin Newsom in office but is not working on this year’s campaigns. “For a contested San Francisco mayor’s race, this is pretty standard.” Read More
Allegations of voter manipulation by an independent expenditure group supporting Ed Lee prompted seven mayoral candidates to seek federal election monitors Sunday.
Lee’s challengers wrote to the U.S. Department of Justice and the California secretary of state, suggesting that the SF Neighbor Alliance targets Cantonese-speaking voters and “may potentially impinge on” their voting rights. Read More
