Calabasas CA
6-06-2026 12:10am

Will Voter Turnout Stats Exceed 20 Year

California's 2020 & 2016 primaries had 47% participation, while non-Presidential primaries of 2022 had 33%, 2018 had 37%, & 2014 had 25% voter participation, with upward mail-in votes.

  • Under Assembly Bill 5 (Chapter 250, Statutes of 2025), effective this year, counties are required to count and report most ballots by June 15, 2026. 
  • Certain ballot types, including provisional ballots, conditional voter registration ballots, signature cure ballots, ballots requiring duplication, ballots forwarded from other counties, and some late-arriving vote-by-mail ballots, are exempt from this deadline. 
  • California county elections officials have 30 days from Election Day to process these ballots.
  • County elections officials must report their final results to the Secretary of State by July 3, 2026. 
  • The Secretary of State will certify the results by July 10, 2026.
2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 2026
as of 6/5/26
Voter
participation		 8,548,301 7,141,987 9,687,076  7,285,230  7,719,218
Voter participation % 47.72% 37.54% 46.9% 33.2% 34.9%
Vote-by -mail 5,036,262 4,834,975 6,982,750 6,647,212 6,841,984
Vote-by -mail % 58.9% 67.7% 72.1% 91.2% 88.64%
Precinct Voters
(in person)		 3,512,039 2,307,012 2,704,326 638,018    877,234
Precinct Voters % 41.1% 32.3% 27.9% 8.7% 11.3%
Eligible to vote 24,783,789 25,119,238 25,251,216 26,911,669 26,638,018
Registered to Vote
15 days before the election		 17,915,053 19,023,417 20,660,465 21,941,212 22,077,333 23,155,447
2006 2008 2010 2012 2014
Voter
participation		 5,269,142 4,550,227 5,654,813 5,328,296 4,461,346
Voter 
participation %		 33.6% 28.2% 33.3% 31.1% 25.2%
Vote-by-mail 2,471,358 2,671,230 3,278,224 3,471,570 3,096,104
Vote-by-mail % 46.9% 58.7% 57.9% 65.1% 69.4%
Precinct Voters (in person) 2,797,784 1,878,997 2,376,769 1,856,726 1,265,242
Precinct Voters % 53.1% 41.3% 42% 34.8% 30.6%
Eligible to Vote 22,542,844 23,033,970 23,453,690 23,713,027 24,192,752
Registered to Vote
15 days before the election		 15,668,439 16,123,787 16,977,031 17,153,699 17,722,006
  • 2018 - Voter's Choice Act
    Five California counties--Madera, Napa, Nevada, Sacramento, and San Mateo--implemented a new model of conducting elections for the first time during the June 5, 2018 Statewide Direct Primary Election. In these counties, every registered voter was mailed a ballot, and voters had the option of returning their ballot by mail, at a ballot drop box, or any vote center open in their county.
    All five counties exceeded the statewide turnout rate of 37.5%
  • 2016 - This was the first statewide election in which vote-by-mail ballots postmarked on or before Election Day and received by county elections officials no later than 3 days after Election Day had to be processed.
     Countywide turnout was lowest in Los Angeles (41.2%), Fresno (40.8%) & Kern (40.7%).
    Countywide turnout was highest in Alpine (73.22%), Sierra (68.4%) and Nevada (68.3%). Sierra and Alpine are the only California counties that conduct elections entirely by mail.
  • 2012 -
    Countywide turnout was lowest in Los Angeles (21.8%), San Bernardino (23.7%) & Orange (26.5%).
    Countywide turnout was highest in Sierra (59.2%), Alpine (58.6%) and Amador (57.1%). Sierra and Alpine are the only California counties that conduct elections entirely by mail.
  • 2010
    Countywide turnout was the lowest in Los Angeles (23.5%), San Bernardino (27.2%) and Merced (27.5%).  For this June 8 election, counties with the highest voter turnout as a percentage of registered voters were Sierra (73.3 %), Modoc (64.2%) and Alpine (63.9%).
  • 2008
    For the first time since 1940, California had a split primary in 2008. Voters cast ballots for the
    presidential nominees in February. Last month, they selected party nominees for the state
    Legislature and Congress.
    “Splitting the primary to increase California’s say in the presidential contests did give the state
    more clout in February, but everyone knew from the start that it ran the risk of orphaning the
    June election,” said Secretary Bowen, California’s chief elections officer. “As feared, turnout
    plummeted last month when there was no top-of-the-ticket excitement to attract voters to the
    polls. Having a split primary was an effort worth trying, but based on the disappointing turnout
    in June, it’s not an effort worth repeating.”

 The Secretary of State’s office does not issue, receive, or count ballots. State law requires elections officials in each of California’s 58 counties to process and count ballots, and transmit results to the Secretary of State’s office. The Secretary of State’s office compiles all of these results in the official Statement of Vote.


HISTORICAL VOTER REGISTRATION AND PARTICIPATION IN STATEWIDE PRIMARY ELECTIONS 1914 - 2014

Edit added 2006 2008 2010 columns

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