Voter registration on upswing since 2018
California is seeing the highest percentage of eligible voters heading into a gubernatorial election in 68 years, and Humboldt County saw a spike in registered voters as well.
Between May 21, 2018, and May 23 of this year, Humboldt County saw a 12.4% increase in registered voters, going from 75,978 (71.9% of eligible voters) to 85,420 (79.72% of eligible voters). As a whole, the state went from 75.73% of registered, eligible voters to 81.53%.
“I know that we had a substantial increase in 2020,” said Kelly Sanders, Humboldt County’s clerk-recorder and registrar of voters. “Presidential election years seem to drive everybody to register to vote, they attract the most attention to voters, and so our voter registration rolls always increase during a presidential year. I haven’t seen much of a drop since 2020 through 2022. That level has been maintaining.”
The 2022 report of registration numbers showed a decrease in registered voters in Humboldt County compared to October 2020 — a month prior to the past presidential election — which had 82.52% of the eligible population registered to vote.
As in 2018 in Humboldt County, the biggest political coalition in 2022 was registered Democrats, who made up 46.40% of the county’s registered voters. Republicans held 23.63% of the county’s registered voters, 3.79% were registered Independents and 1.65% were registered with the Green Party.
Since 2018 only Democrats and the Green Party saw a noticeable change in their party membership. The number of registered Democrats went from 33,964 in 2018 to 39,639 this past May and registered Greens dropped from 1,850 (2.43% of voters) to 1,412 (1.65% of voters).
Republicans and Independents each saw less than a percentage point change from 2018 to 2022, with 23.63% registered as the former and 3.79% as the latter as of this May.
Eligible voters who have not yet registered may do so at their local polling place or at the Hum
boldt County Elections Office located at 2426 Sixth St. in Eureka.
Statewide, total voter registration increased from 19,023,417 to 21,941,212.
“As of May 23, 2022, there were 21,941,212 registered voters in California, which is 81.53 percent of eligible Californians,” Shirley Weber, California’s secretary of state said in a release. “This is the highest percentage of eligible citizens registered to vote heading into a California Gubernatorial Primary in the past 68 years.”
The 2022 report of registration can be found at bit. ly/3auXe3A and the 2018 report of registration can be found at bit.ly/3xpDveZ.