VOTER PARTICIPATION

What Was Measured?
Voter turnout for each election in San Mateo County from 1990 to 1995 was measured.

Why Is It Important?
In a sustainable society, citizens participate in making decisions about their communities.  High participation would indicate that citizens believe that their vote is important.

What Was Found?
The percentage of those old enough to vote who actually do vote is below 50 percent, except for the 1992 presidential election when 54 percent voted.  Voter participation in off-year elections ranges from 15 percent to 19 percent.

In most years, more than a third of our citizens who are eligible to vote are not even registered.

The percent of those registered to vote who actually voted drops off considerably for primaries, and even more so for off-year elections.

What Is The Trend?
There seems to be a consistency of voter turnout over the last five years for each type of election, with no dramatic ups or downs.

Participation in general elections, in which the president and state government officials are elected, is traditionally higher than participation in primaries and off-year elections when school board members, city council members, special district board members, and county and city measures are decided.

In the presidential election of 1992, the participation level of voters nationally was 51 percent, compared to 54 percent for San Mateo County.

The most significant trend is that participation is low for all elections, but the off-year elections draw very small numbers of eligible voters.

Sources: CA State Dept. of Finance, Demographic Research Unit, (916)322-4651 for population of county for 1991-1995; San Mateo County Statement of Vote for number of persons registered, percent of those registered who voted and actual number who voted; and Sales & Marketing Management, Survey of Buying Power Issues for percent of population over 18 years old; Statistical Abstract of the U.S., 1995.

Researcher: Marcia Pagels