Voter Registration Up Slightly

Slightly more Californians are registered to vote in Tuesday’s recall election than when Gov. Gray Davis won a second term in November, the secretary of state reported Friday.

There are 15,380,536 registered voters, compared with 15,303,469 a year ago.

But because the number of people eligible to register rose by several hundred thousand, the percentage of eligible voters who actually are registered declined from 71.3% to 70.45%.

All in all, state officials said, the steady numbers underscore public interest in the recall and the replacement ballot, with its 135 candidates.

Registration for the recall lags behind that for the 2000 presidential election, when 73.19% of eligible voters signed up. Since the last governor’s election, the percentage of voters who have identified themselves with the two major parties also has remained relatively stable. Since November, Democratic registration has slipped from 44.6% to 43.7%, while Republican registration has risen from 35.2% to 35.3%.