Voters will go to the polls Tuesday to cast their ballots in a historic election that has already broken several important records. Among them: The highest ever number of newly registered voters and independent expenditures that have eclipsed previous highs.
California's voter rolls have grown by nearly 650,000 according to the latest and final figures released by Secretary of State Alex Padilla Friday. That puts the number of registered voters at 17,915,053, the largest number heading into a primary election so far. Ninety-eight percent of the increase occurred in the last 45 days of registration between April 8 and May 23. Of The new registrants, seventy-six percent were Democrats.
This election has also shattered records on the financial front, with outside interest groups having spent more than $24 million on the state’s legislative races. That figure has trounced the $16.7 million in primary legislative campaigns two years ago and is nearing the $30 million spent in the general election in 2014.
The flood of outside money has raised significant concerns about special interests trying to buy their way into the Legislature.
“I think these expenditures by special interests are a huge reason why voters have so much disdain for the political process,” said San Jose Assemblywoman Nora Campos, who is challenging Jim Beall in the 15th Senate District.
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