FLLewis / A Writer’s Groove
Voters in line at a Burbank polling place on November 4, 2008
We first got a hint at the historic turnout in the November 2008 General Election from the many reports of voters waiting in long lines to cast their ballots. Now the numbers are in for California and they confirm that the turnout was indeed huge!
Secretary of State Debra Bowen has certified that 13,743,177 Californians cast ballots in the November 4 election. That means 79.4 percent of the 17.3 million registered voters in the state participated in this election, the highest percentage since 1976. In a news release on Saturday, Bowen said: “This was an election for the history books.”
The election that attracted the most Californians was in 1964 when Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater for president. In that election nearly 88.4 percent of registered voters in the state cast ballots.
