Since 2018, Democrats have outpaced Republicans 4-to-1 in SLO County voter registrations

The Novemer election is only a month away, and the Republican Party is struggling when it comes to signing up new voters in San Luis Obispo County, according to the latest voter registration report from the California Secretary of State’s Office.

The state agency reported this past week that Democrats are outpacing Republicans in new voters in SLO over the past four years by a decisive 4-to-1 ratio.

That has turned what was a Republican advantage into what is now a growing deficit.

As of September 2018, San Luis Obispo County had 59,171 registered Republicans, or 35.8% of the electorate, compared to 57,076 Democrats, or 34.5% of all voters.

Fast forward to this Sept. 9 of this year, and San Luis Obispo County now has 69,616 registered Democrats, or 38.3% of all voters, while Republicans have 62,355, or 34.3%.

As a result, a county that was red-leaning by 2,000 voters is now blue-leaning 7,000 voters.

In total, Democrats have added 12,540 more registered voters to the rolls here since 2018, while the GOP added just 3,184 over the same time.

For every new Republican voter, the Democrats added four. Democrats added nearly 4 percentage points to their numbers while the Republicans declined by about 1.5%.

Shift from ‘no party preference’

What about “no party preference”?

In SLO County in 2018, the number was 38,953 in this category, making up 23.5% of all voters.

This year those numbers are down to 35,497, or 19.5% of all voters. It looks as if some 3,500 “no party” voters decided to become affiliated. With the surge in new Democrats on the SLO County rolls, many appear to have decided to turn blue.

Statewide, the trend is in the same direction.

This year, the so-called 60-day state election report shows 10.26 million Democrats, or 46.8% of registered voters, vs. 5.22 million Republicans, or 23.8% of all voters.

Four year ago, Democrats outnumbered GOP voters 8.34 million (43.6%) to 4.67 million (24.5%) registered voters.

So since 2018, Democrats have added 1.9 million new California voters while Republicans have added 550,000, and the GOP share of voters has declined. Interestingly, the percentage of voters listed as ”no party preference” has dropped in the four years as well.

Democrats making gains in the Valley, too

Even San Joaquin Valley counties, typically GOP strongholds, are showing Democratic numbers outpacing Republican signups from 2018 to 2022.

In 2018, Democrats in Fresno County totaled 170,883 voters, or 38.1%, compared to 151,258 GOP voters, or 33.7%.

Now in 2022, Democrats number 197,224 voters, or 39.6%, compared to 158,847 Republicans, or 32.1%.

They now have almost a 40,000-vote edge in the heartland of this conservative valley.

So over the four-year period, Democrats have added 26,341 voters to the rolls while the GOP added 8,589 — a 3-to-1 ratio. Democrats in Fresno have gained more than a percentage point while the GOP has lost more than a point.

Some trivia: The county with the highest percentage of Democrats is San Francisco with 63%. The county with the highest share of Republican voters is Lassen County with 55.8% registered with the GOP.

John Lindt is the editor of the news website Sierra2theSea.net.

This story was originally published October 7, 2022 at 7:00 AM.