When Jerry Brown first ran for governor in 1974, primary turnout was 54 percent. This month, only about 25 percent of the state’s 17.7 million registered voters, and about 18 percent of those legally eligible, actually cast ballots, continuing California’s steady decline to one of the nation’s lowest rates.
We speculate endlessly about causes of the voting decline, but some fairly hard data are available. We know that voting is high in rural and suburban areas and among older white Californians, but lags among younger, non-white and urban Californians. June 3’s lowest turnout was in highly urbanized, ethnically complex Los Angeles County, about 17 percent.
The wide characteristic gap skews political campaigns, as candidates tailor their appeals to the interests and fears of those likely to vote and ignore those who don’t, thus reinforcing civic fragmentation.
The erosion of voter turnout parallels the decades-long decline in “labor force participation,” the percentage of adults who are either working or seeking work.
California’s rate is now down to 62.5 percent, the lowest since 1978.
Just as low voter turnout distorts our politics, low labor force participation skews our economy, or at least our perceptions of the economy.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/06/22/3988536/dan-walters-california-falling.html