California voters showing little interest in June primary election
Early voting trends in the Valley aren't showing a strong interest in the June primary ballot.
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Tuesday Governor Gavin Newsom begins his path to seek re-election. Just nine months ago he won convincingly in a recall election.
FOX26 News asked Fresno State political science professor, Dr. Tom Holyoke if the recall created voter fatigue?
"Governor Newsom showed his strength in the recall and I don't think the Republicans recovered particularly well from that so especially those people that don't support Gavin Newsom. I don't think there's a lot of energy out there."
Monday FOX26 News checked in with county clerks in six Central Valley counties. Fresno County mailed out nearly half a million ballots to voters. As of Monday morning, 72,000 have been returned. That equals a 14% return rate.
Kings County has a 9% return rate. Nearly 62,000 ballots were mailed and 5,430 have been returned. Madera County sent out 71,708. As of Monday morning, 10,700 were mailed back. The return rate is 15%.
Mariposa County has the best numbers at 25%. Nearly 12, 000 ballots were mailed and almost 3,000 were returned.
Merced County has received 13,396 ballots after mailing out 124.059. The return rate stands at 11%. Lastly, Tulare County sent out 207,000 ballots. So far 19,154 have been returned by voters. The return rate is 9%.
"When you have a primary for a mid-term election when the President is not on the ballot, that's probably the election that's going to have the lowest turnout."
Political Data Intelligence which has tracked voter turnout for decades says 21.8 million ballots were mailed to California voters. As of last Wednesday, 2-million people returned their ballots, which equals 9% turnout statewide.
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The polls open Tuesday morning at 7:00 and close at 8:00 in the evening.
