SLO County Democrats continue to surge in voter registration

As of Oct. 1, Democrats outnumbered Republicans in San Luis Obispo County 60,694 to 59,546 — a slim majority of those eligible to vote in the March 2020 primary.

Historically, the GOP outnumbered Democrats in the county by a good majority. But things are changing, according to the California Secretary of State’s Office.

More significant than the current margin is how dramatically Democratic registration has increased from January 2016.

Back then, Democratic voters in SLO County numbered 48,212, while Republican registration stood at 57,783, an almost 10,000-person advantage.

But in the four years since, Democrats added just under 12,500 voters eligible, while the GOP added just 1,763. That’s a 7-to-1 advantage.

The trend matches an even bigger statewide surge in Democratic voters, up over 1.5 million voters since January 2016 while the GOP added just 26,000 across California.

Looking at the count by supervisorial district, Debbie Arnold’s District 5 shows the GOP advantage dropping from a margin of 3,626 in January 2016 to 1,082 in the latest count. District 4 also shows gains by Democrats, but Republican voters still hold an edge of almost 2,000 voters, 13,803 to 11,902.

Most dramatically, registration in the 24th Congressional District (represented by Salud Carbajal) has seen a surge in the number of Democratic voters.

In the 2016 primary, Democrats held about a 127,000-to-115,000 advantage. In the latest report, Democrats have surged to approximately 160,000 while the GOP has ticked up to 117,000.

This story was originally published December 4, 2019 at 5:22 PM.