Stanislaus election officials witness voter registration tsunami

A strong wave of voter registration activity continued until Monday’s deadline before the June 7 primary.

From time to time, the line stretched out the door of the Stanislaus County registrar of voters office on I Street in Modesto, while people registered online or signed cards at registration tables outside storefronts.

Lee Lundrigan, county registrar of voters, said Monday she expected the Department of Motor Vehicles to send over a large number of voter registrations before the 5 p.m. deadline.

There never has been so many ways to register to vote, and a statewide surge in activity was evident here.

The county election office stayed open for an extra hour after the 5 p.m. cutoff to accept cards from groups doing registration drives.

Besides people registering for the first time, some were changing party affiliation or needed to update their registration because they had moved or changed their name, Lundrigan said.

Statewide, Democrat Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign was taking credit for a registration boost among Democrats in California. In addition, the “no party oreference” voters – almost 40,000 of them in Stanislaus County – needed to reregister as Republicans if they want to cast a ballot for GOP frontrunner Donald Trump or other Republicans in the presidential primary.

For the presidential primary, the Democratic Party is allowing nonpartisan registrants to “cross over” and vote for their candidates.

Lundrigan said a weekly check showed online registrations averaging 245 a day on successive Tuesdays from April 26 to May 10, compared with five per day last year. There were 2,047 online registrations received by her office on May 17 alone.

The office received 4,634 online registrations in the past week.

Lundrigan released a running total on voter registrations as of Monday. The county has 217,496 active registered voters, up from 215,594 in January.

The gains were on the Democratic side, which added 2,700 members since January, while the GOP total was flat. The latest breakdown was 86,831 Republican to 81,215 Democrats, or 52 percent to 48 percent. There are 38,068 who stated no party preference, a decrease of 620 since January.

The final outcome of the registration shakeup won’t be known until thousands of additional cards are processed this week.

John Schmit of Salida, who is working locally for Sanders’ campaign, said a registration booth signed up 55 voters Sunday at El Rematito flea market on Crows Landing Road, bringing the total to 140 in three visits to the open-air market.

Schmit said the vast majority registered as Democrats or no party preference, with a desire to vote for the Vermont senator, who trails Hillary Clinton. Three or four were registered as Republicans.

“About 99 percent of the people enrolling speak Spanish as their primary language,” Schmit said. “They are not changing parties or their residence. It is a surge of hope. For once you have a liberal candidate who walks the talk.”

Schmit said Sanders supporters had registration tables at local colleges and other locations, and they were still registering people Monday at a Walmart store in Turlock.

Jessica Quintero, 28, of Modesto is backing Sanders and working on a political campaign for the first time, she said. She saw quite a few young Latinos, 18 and 19 years old, who were encouraged to register by their parents.

She said she believes Latinos have been motivated by Donald Trump’s comments on immigration. “To be honest, Donald Trump did an amazing thing for Bernie Sanders (in California),” Quintero said. “It really did light that fire under a lot of Latino voters.”

This story was originally published May 23, 2016 at 7:12 PM with the headline "Stanislaus election officials witness voter registration tsunami."