California voters are crabby, but more and more of them vote.
Nearly three in four voters say they believe the nation and the state are headed in the wrong direction, the highest figure since the Public Policy Institute of California began asking the survey question in 2003.
Despite their gloomy outlook, Californians are registering and voting in record numbers, say PPIC analysts in their newest report released Wednesday.
State registration rolls swelled to a record 16.1 million in May, the most recent tally, and if the trend persists, the state will see historic highs in both registration and turnout in the November election.
Intense interest in the presidential race is undoubtedly fueling the increase, but high voter participation levels could have far-reaching implications for state and local candidates and dozens of ballot measures.
"Incumbent elected officials, candidates and those who advise them would do well to study the signs, as voters may be telegraphing an ultimatum," wrote institute director Mark Baldassare and report co-authors. "They are fed up with government they cannot trust and leaders who do not lead, and they are going to do something about it."
The institute published the conclusions in its September 2008 "At Issue: The State of California Voters." Baldassare and several analysts reviewed a variety of recent surveys as part of their analysis.
Among the institutes' other findings:
AdvertisementThe increase in voting and registration does not translate into enthusiasm for political parties.
The share of Republican and Democratic voters dropped from 87.1 percent in 1992 to 76.3 percent in 2008, and independent voter ranks grew from 1.3 million to 3 million in the same time period. In fact, majority of California voters say they believe the state needs a third major party.
Voters distrust national and state government about the same. Twenty-three percent say they believe the federal government does what is right always or most of the time. Just 28 percent trust state leaders, a slight improvement of levels before the 2003 recall of California Gov. Gray Davis.
Voters can blame themselves, in part, for the state's partisan divide, Baldassare concluded.
They increasingly split along party lines on key issues such as taxes while they simultaneously demand bipartisan solutions and adopt ballot-box initiatives that bypass lawmakers.
"Voters' own ideological differences help to fuel partisan gridlock," Baldassare wrote. "Easing that gridlock — and the sense of dissatisfaction — is also partly in the hands of California voters."
0 comments:
Post a Comment