Comments on: Independent voters on the rise

By: steve weir

steve weir — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 14:51:56 +0000

As of Friday’s mail, Contra Costa has a 43.9% return rate for vote-by-mail, our Decline to State rate of return is 34.7%

By: Ralph Hoffmann

Ralph Hoffmann — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 03:14:53 +0000

I’m curious why DTS voters are lagging behind returning their ballots. Is anyone conducting a poll?

By: steve weir

steve weir — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 01:19:55 +0000

Our DTS voters are lagging behind in returning their ballots….stay tuned and I’ll give you the stats on Monday…

By: Ralph Hoffmann

Ralph Hoffmann — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 03:25:34 +0000

John, Carly’s no party loyalty ads seem to recognize what you’re writing. Have you noticed that Election Day is “The Day of the Dead” this year?

By: John W

John W — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 01:29:20 +0000

Ralph, your observation is the conventional wisdom. But Dems increased their share of total registered voters. Their + 892 thousand accounts for a whopping 62% of the 1.4 million total increase. DTS accounts for 37% of the total increase. Some of the Dem increase is probably due to the Dems’ aggressive voter registration drive running up to the 2008 election. However, since Repub registration went down, the data suggest to me that most of the DTS increase came from former registered Republicans, for whatever reason. So, it’s not surprising that independents (i.e. DTS) are breaking Repub this year. Repubs who have shifted to DTS may not be able to stomach the increasingly hard right posture of the CA GOP, but they are still Repubs at heart.

By: Ralph Hoffmann

Ralph Hoffmann — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 23:09:38 +0000

These are interesting statistics, which to me show a stste-wide dislike for partisan politics.