California turnout for the June 7th primary appears to be headed to a record low. There

[JohnSJ]

is no excuse for that either. California mails all registered voters a postage paid ballot.

As for one of the most progressive states, people cannot even take 5 minutes to sit down and vote.

[2naSalit]

1. ...

[Lovie777]

2. Oh damn, we will be ok.........

[TigressDem]

3. Primary is about picking the best of our own.

Maybe most people trust that whoever we have is better than theirs, so it's less of an issue. I used to feel that way.

I STILL believe that any DEM is only running because they have SOME qualifications for the position. It's what we do.

As long as there isn't a Rethug ringer in the primary, whoever we pick is going to be someone who will work FOR US.

[Sympthsical]

4. It's a side effect of being this blue

And I'm not complaining about living in a state as deep blue as ours. It's quite nice.

However, when all the races are total foregone conclusions, people aren't very motivated to bother. Even local races are often incumbent drenched unopposed show elections.

The headline this morning from SF Gate: "California Republicans send latest sacrifice to Gavin Newsom"

https://www.sfgate.com/elections/article/CA-Republicans-send-latest-sacrifice-to-Newsom-17226261.php

That's a real (deeply amusing) headline.

In many places in the state, it just kind of doesn't matter unless something controversial is going on, which it usually isn't. My Congressman coasted on in. All my local offices were the same people.

I always, always vote. We got our ballots in the mail weeks ago. There they sat next to the coffee maker until this weekend when I thought, "We should probably fill those out." And it was a half-hearted, "Oh yeah, that needs doing," like it was a bill I needed to get around to paying. It would've made no difference whatsoever whether or not I filled out the ballot. Not even on the local level.

Newsom's recall, Boudin's recall. Those get people going. But if you lived in the usual areas, meh. If they get around to it. If not, it doesn't matter.

[JohnSJ]

5. There is no excuse for it. When you have voting rights getting whittled away with the help of the

Supreme Court, blue state or not, this is not a good thing

[Sympthsical]

6. I didn't say there's an excuse for it

Just that people aren't motivated to do things when they feel it doesn't really matter.

Human nature is what it is.

[JohnSJ]

7. I know

[ripcord]

8. I tried to tell a woman I was taking to how important voting was

Her response, "we have a super majority, don't worry so much".

[Sympthsical]

9. Oh yeah, people know Democrats will win

I saw a lot of motivation during Newsom's recall. It felt like everyone was voting.

But a regular old primary where it's the same people who always win, it's a big yawn. Except Boudin's recall. Man, my friends in the city had opinions on that one, and they voted.

My Democratic Congressman got about 67% of the vote yesterday, and that's only because my district leaks over into a swath of rural area. If you go a mile down my street, you're in vineyards and farmland and see Trump signs. It's amusing. The Democratic congressman next door received about 83%.

People just aren't that worried about it.

[Nictuku]

10. It definitely took more than 5 minutes!!

This year, the ballot was 2 loooong cards, both sides. So 4 long pages that required filling out.

I always do my research, and this year I was nothing but frustrated with the information that was available to me about the local elections.

Most of the non-partisan offices had no opposition, but still, I wanted to be sure that I was voting for someone who supports the issues that are important to me. But any info about these people all lead to one single newspaper.

I live in Napa. The only information about these local candidates were articles in the local Newspaper "The Napa Register". Which has a pay wall.

I am stubborn, I should have just paid the damn $5.00 and given them my email address (so they can sell it and I get even more spam email), but, as I said, I'm stubborn. I don't feel that I should have to pay to get information about candidates.

In the end, I did not vote for any of the un-opposed incumbents. I didn't vote for or against them. I couldn't find any info that wasn't from their own publications. One race there were 2 running for the spot, and I did the best with what little info there was.

This process took me a couple of days, but mostly because I got so frustrated with not being able to read up on the candidates I needed to read up on.

But it didn't take no 5 minutes! and then I had to drive to town to put it in a drop box (that is an hour trip). I could have mailed it, but I had waited so long that I wanted to put it in a drop box instead. I'm not complaining, I feel that the ability to vote is sacred. It is a Duty. It is important. But I know a lot of my friends don't feel this way. I have gone above and beyond to try to convince these apathetic people that no, the 2 parties are NOT AT ALL the same.

It does make me mad too that there is a low turnout. The United States of Apathy (they want to blame everything bad on the President), but they have not given the President the tools needed to accomplish things (i.e. large congressional and senate majority). The way to fix that is to Vote. And then they don't. It is ridiculous. And the Republicans reap the winnings from this stupidity. I wish people weren't so small-minded. But we are.