Divide is deep between voters and nonvoters

Only about half of California's adult residents are likely to vote in this year's presidential election, according to a study released last week by the Public Policy Institute of California. While low voter turnout is nothing new, the study illustrates a sharp divide between the priorities of Californians as a whole and those of the few who will vote for the propositions and representatives that will shape life in the state.

"Likely voters in California tend to be older, white, college-educated, affluent, and homeowners," says the institute. "Likely voters also tend to identify themselves as 'haves' — rather than 'have-nots' — when asked to choose between these two economic categories. Nonvoters tend to be younger, Latino, renters, less affluent, less likely to be college-educated than likely voters — and they generally identify with the have-nots."

While 82 percent of adults in California are eligible to vote, only 57 percent have registered to do so, down from 63 percent in 2000. Many of those registered are still unlikely to actually cast a ballot, meaning less than half the state's residents will participate in this June's primary or November's general election.

How does this affect election outcomes?

Likely voters are split (51 percent in favor, 44 percent opposed) to the idea that "government should do more to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor." Non-voters, meanwhile, support more government programs by a 70 percent supermajority. Those who'll vote favor using budget surpluses to pay down debt rather than restore previous cuts to social services (59 to 38 percent), while the reverse is true of those who won't (50 to 44).

Less than half of likely voters say increasing the minimum wage is important to them, but more than two-thirds of non-voters say this issue is "very important." Non-voters are also more likely to say that issues like passing bonds to support local schools are important to them than the property owners who'll pay those bonds and are more likely to vote on whether or not they're approved.

"The divide between voters and nonvoters appears to be deep, persistent, and difficult to bridge," said report author, institute president, and CEO Mark Baldassare in a release breaking down the findings. "It will have far-reaching consequences this fall, when issues as important as the minimum wage, school bonds, and the death penalty are likely to be on the ballot."

Despite efforts to make access to voting easier (online registration has been available to Californians since 2012 and eligible voters will soon be able to register right up to election day), most non-voters polled seem unlikely to join in the democratic process, citing a mistrust of politics or a general lack of interest as the primary de-motivators.