 |
 -0 |
 |
|
||||||||
 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
 |
|
Pollsters foresee record turnout The 43-year-old computer technician had driven over from his gym after hearing about the GOP gubernatorial contender's visit last week. "I'm not really that politically involved," Brewster said. "But I'll probably vote for him." Pollsters and pundits say Schwarzenegger's celebrity, widespread media coverage of the recall election and anger over the state's budget and energy crises will bring out voters like Brewster and produce a record turnout for a special election. "There is more interest in this election than there is even in a presidential election," Republican pollster Frank Luntz said. "It's anger (for voters) on the right, and media coverage (for voters) in the center and on the left that will bring them out." Pollsters report 60 percent to 89 percent of those surveyed say they plan to vote on Oct. 7. "It just amazed me," said Stephen M. Kinney, pollster for former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth's gubernatorial campaign. "This is the highest I have ever seen it." Kinney and some other pollsters predicted two-thirds or more of the state's registered voters could cast ballots in the recall election. In recent years, only presidential elections generated that high a turnout in the state. One important indicator of turnout is new voter registrations, and several county registrars have noted a surge in those. The secretary of state's office also has seen an increase in the number of people requesting voter registration forms from its Web site. In Sacramento County, spokesman Al Fawcett said the registrar's office has been getting "several thousand" new voter registrations per week since the recall qualified for the ballot. The county had 595,416 registered voters on Aug. 12, the last date for which Fawcett had figures. That is 18,258 more than the number of registered voters in the last election, Nov. 5. In recent weeks, Fawcett said, about two-thirds of the voter registration cards came from people who are already registered to vote and have not changed their address or party affiliation. "Apparently, there is some misinformation out there that they have to register to vote in the recall," he said. Sept. 22 is the deadline to register to vote for the recall election, and Fawcett said those who are already registered don't need to re-register unless they've moved or changed their name or their party affiliation. The California Republican Party has been conducting an aggressive voter registration drive, hitting a record high two weeks ago by registering 13,000 new voters in a one-week period, party spokesman Mike Wintemute said. "What we have seen in the past several weeks is the number of people registering on a weekly basis has increased, and we attribute that to the recall and anti-Davis fervor," he said. Bob Mulholland, California Democratic Party strategist, said he has seen a surge in interest, too. But he expects registration and voter turnout to be lower than it has been for a presidential election. "You could find by late September that there's a lot less electricity out there," he said. Terri Carbaugh, the secretary of state's spokeswoman, also pointed out that many factors -- from Election Day weather to campaign tactics -- determine how many Californians go to the polls. "There are so many variables on turnout that it is always hard to pinpoint," she said. Antonio Gonzalez, president of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, said the candidates, political parties and organizations like his won't have enough time to fully gear up their voter turnout operations.
Gonzalez said he'd hoped to raise $1 million to get 100,000 to 250,000 more Latino voters to the polls. With
|
|
|
