A majority of California voters want the state to shoulder more of the effort in encouraging voter participation among underrepresented groups, new polling found.
Nearly 70% of surveyed voters say California has a responsibility to expand voter outreach services, and around 64% support giving “greater funding and resources to community organizations and nonpartisan outreach groups to inform voters as to when elections are being held and their options for returning the ballot,” the survey says.
The survey, conducted by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, found the most common reason for not voting is a “lack of information.” Three in 10 registered voters who do not vote regularly, according to the poll, say one of the reasons is because they “don’t know enough about the candidates or the issues.”
Democrats, liberal voters, women and younger voters, as well as Latinos, Asian American and Black people, express greater concerns that voters of color are “not voting at anywhere near the same rate as Whites,” according to the survey. In the last seven statewide elections, 71% of White people were regular voters, while a collective 28% of Latinos, Asians and Black individuals voted in five or more of the last seven elections.
In Orange County, the Registrar of Voters hosts various voter outreach opportunities each month during community events, including at Taste of Japan, the Irvine Korean Cultural Festival and the annual Westminster National Night Out.
Under the Voting Rights Act, election officials in areas with minorities that have “suffered a history of exclusion from the political process” are mandated to “maintain relationships with the minority communities they serve,” according to the Registrar of Voters. That means in Orange County, the registrar must support voters with limited English proficiency in Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Spanish languages.
The Registrar of Voters received some Voter’s Choice Act funds for voter education and outreach in 2022, Registrar of Voters Bob Page said, but community partners, including those on the Community Election Working Group, the Voting Accessibility Advisory Committee and the Language Accessibility Advisory Committee, did not.
In the 2022 general election, the Registrar of Voters spent a total of $767,401 on voter outreach, according to community outreach manager Enedina Chhim, $200,000 of which was funded by a grant under the Voter’s Choice Act.
And while a majority of Californians believe it’s the state’s responsibility to expand outreach services to support underrepresented groups, the poll also found Republicans and strong conservative voters oppose putting more state dollars into this effort.
“Efforts to get people registered to vote are obviously important,” said Randall Avila, the Orange County Republican Party’s executive director. “But we’ve expanded our laws in California that make it incredibly easy to vote now, and so there are very limited factors inhibiting people to vote at this point.
“Our concern stems from the state expanding and using taxpayer dollars, which, most times is either a state-run program or issued through a grant to … political nonprofits that focus on getting out the vote,” Avila said. “The individuals on those boards or managing the funds may lean a certain way. They might use that as a vehicle, under the guise of being a nonprofit with no political agenda.”
But Avila said he is generally supportive of money being given to local governments since people would be able to “see where the funds are going” and how they’re used.
“I think giving the local counties the ability and the funds they need to conduct the elections in a free and a fair way is obviously always a good thing,” he said.
Statewide, California deploys the Motor Voter program that automatically registers eligible Californians completing a driver’s license, state identification or change of address transaction through the DMV to vote, unless they choose to opt-out. And Motor Voter has become the top method for Californians to register to vote for the first time or update an existing registration, especially among California voters between 18 and 24 years old and Asian American, Black and Latino first-time registrants, according to an analysis of voter registration and voting behavior in the 2016, 2018 and 2020 contests from USC’s Center for Inclusive Democracy.
However, the program has not translated to a higher rate of voter turnout, possibly due to a lack of active voter outreach and education at the DMV.
A voter’s level of political activity is also synonymous with their age, the poll found. Political activities in the 2022 election, such as posting a political comment online and giving money to a party or candidate, were done mostly by voters 65 or older.
In Orange County, 57% of voters were politically active in the 2022 elections, 2% less than the total registered voters who partook in political activities.
Source: Orange County Register
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