On November 7 I reported that voter turnout in California had been lousy this year. On November 9 I reported that I had screwed up: voter turnout had actually been pretty great. Using estimates from David Dayen, I figured that total turnout would turn out to be about 12.7 million, or 50.4 percent of eligible voters. Today the Sacramento Bee provided us with nearly final numbers:
More than 25 million Californians were eligible to vote in the election, and nearly 19.7 million of them were registered — both record-highs. About 12.7 million Californians are expected to have voted in the November elections — the highest number in a general election midterm cycle in state history.
That was a pretty good estimate from David! Let this be a lesson to everyone: it takes a long time to count votes in California, so don’t jump to conclusions unless you really know what you’re talking about.
ALSO: We flipped seven seats from Republican to Democratic, 18 percent of the national total. That’s kicking ass.
