The underlying message of low voter turnout

Mail-in ballots as of this writing continue to be tallied and this will continue for several weeks, according to election officials.

Most results are unlikely to change even though at least

2.8 million ballots still had to be counted across the state as of late last week, local elections offices reported.

What won't change is the dismal turnout by voters statewide, even though California Secretary of State Shirley Weber touted record voter registration numbers before the election: 22 million registered voters, or about 82% of those eligible to vote – the highest heading into a gubernatorial primary in 68 years, she said.

But getting people to register is just the first step. Getting them to the polls is far more challenging, as Tuesday's election shows.

Once all the ballots are received and counted, the June 7 primary election will probably turn out to be the secondworst showing for a gubernatorial primary since 1918, the first year for which state turnout data is reported. Estimates are that when all the ballots are received and counted, California might record 6 million voters who bothered to cast ballots – about 22% of adults eligible to vote and 27% of those registered.

That means that fewer than one in four voting-age adults cared enough to participate in decisions affecting their state and local governments. So what's up?

We're written before that the lack of credible candidates for state offices sent a message about leadership and public service that voters may have interpreted as “what's the point of voting?”

And the name “Donald Trump” was nowhere to be found on the ballot, either – and in California, antipathy toward Trump and his minions and their threats to democracy has driven high turnouts.

Add to these reasons the distractions of daily work lives, the decision to move statewide ballot measures to November, the shift of most local city council races to November and the growing disgust with divisive politics.

But something else is going on as well.

Local elections are generally low profile, but they're vital for selecting people who will shape key issues facing our daily lives such as housing, homelessness, public safety, criminal justice, transportation, street conditions, health services, water and libraries, not to mention macro issues such as drug addiction, gun violence, climate change, racial and ethnic disparities, inflation, and the price of gasoline. More often than not, though we just get soporifics. Without specific pledges, voters can be forgiven for thinking that it really doesn't matter much in terms of their daily lives whether they vote.

It doesn't help that as voter apathy increases, special interests hold more sway over elections with campaign advertising and slate cards and that candidates, in turn, become more beholden to those interests.

Yet, when a specific trouble spot came up, such as the disgust many San Franciscans felt about “progressive” law enforcement from the city's district attorney, voters cared enough to throw Chesa Boudin out of office in a 60-40 landslide.

And while several Republicans made strong secondplace showings in local Assembly races, GOP candidates stand little chance of winning elections and so vote, no matter how easy it has become.

There's no easy answer to increasing voter participation. But the problem is not the shift to mail balloting, which if anything has kept the turnout from descending even lower.

The paltry voter turnout presents a serious challenge for our electoral system. At a time when our system of government has been under attack nationally, a sizeable majority of eligible voters don't feel voting makes a difference to their lives. Politicians see this. And it's leading to an unrepresentative and unresponsive government.