In every election that I can remember in California, when the first election results are reported, we are always told that they are absentee ballots. Invariably, these figures always run heavily Republican?
Why is it that so? Do Republicans vote absentee in greater numbers than Democrats? Are the first absentee votes counted from the more heavily Republican areas of California?
I don’t think the latter is the case because even with municipal elections in the city of Los Angeles, the more conservative candidates (municipal elections being nonpartisan in California) usually always have an early lead.
Generally, Republicans tend to vote absentee more than Democrats. Some of it is the “busy executive” syndrome, where workaholics and frequent business travellers find it easier to vote absentee. That can’t be all of it, but I’m not sure what the other causes are.
In Oregon here, the Republican party used to send applications for absentee ballots to every registered Republican in the state. Now we have vote-by-mail, so in effect, we are all voting absentee.
Interesting leadup to the vote-by-mail. Originally, the Democrats opposed it, because of the heavy absentee voting by Republicans. I never understood their thinking on this. I thought they should send applications as well, but I never received one.
Then they had a special election (to fill Bob Packwood’s seat) which was the first vote-by-mail. It was done to save money and also as an experiment, not as the regular way of voting.
But the Democrat won. Suddenly, the Dems wanted vote-by-mail and the GOP was against it. Since the Republicans controlled the legislature, we had to have an inititive to get permanent vote-by-mail.
Moral of the story: if you’re a Democrat, try to persuade your state party to send out absentee applications to party members.
Are you kidding? This is the birthplace of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. The local airport is named after John Wayne. Other than a few pockets in LA and San Francisco, this is one of the most politically conservative states in the union.
If you looked at a map of California divided by counties and they were shaded as either Republican or Democratic, the Republicans would occupy the majority of the state by a wide margin.
However, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Alameda, Santa Cruz, Sacramento, and Yolo are heavily Democratic.
Yeah, I realized I’d misstated that as soon as I posted, but, for some reason, they won’t let me edit my posts anymore. I’d meant to say “home of” rather than “birthplace of”. Note to self: think before typing.
Reagan moved to California in 1937. He made a bunch of movies here, was governor for a long time, and moved back here after his stint in Washington, but he’s not a native.