CDT is proud of our contribution to increasing voter turnout by funding people of color-centered voter engagement across CA, as reported here Census data shows CA voter participation up across the board. However, this part of the piece “Currently, Californians do not have to deal with voter suppression laws” isn’t exactly true. Currently, CA election laws allow local elections to be decided in the primary with 50%+1 votes, thereby robbing the much larger general election electorate the opportunity to vote on many local elections. This year there was a bill to address this issue that wasn’t even given a vote in committee because of moderate Democrats. This indicates that we still have work to do to allow all Californians a fair shot at participating in our democracy.
In Capitol Weekly, Scott Soriano wrote: “The U.S. Census Bureau’s voter survey of the November 2020 election shows that, once again, California saw increased participation in general and across nearly all demographics. A startling finding in the recently released data: In 2020, African American participation hit 64%, very close to 2008’s record 65.2%, when Barack Obama ran for president for the first time. Of California’s 25.9 million eligible voters, 65.1% hit the polls, up from 2016’s 57.9%. California’s 2020 participation also topped 2008’s presidential election, when 63.4% of eligible voters turned out to vote for Barack Obama or John McCain.”