Voters registered as Decline to State (more than 19% of the California electorate) could participate in the Democratic or American Independent Party primary.  According to the Secretary of State's website: "Political parties have until 135 days prior to an election to provide a written notice to the Secretary of State indicating the adoption of a rule allowing decline to state voters to vote the ballot of that individual party.  The deadline for the February 5, 2008 Presidential Primary Election was September 23, 2007."  Only the Democrats and AIP submitted letters.  (Note that in Los Angeles County the ballot layout for decline-to-state voters caused some problems [the "double bubble"]).
 

Democrats 441 Delegates (370 Pledged, 71 Unpledged) and 62 Alternates 10.89% of the 4,049 Delegate Votes. Clinton  |  Obama former: Dodd  |  Edwards  |  Kucinich  |  Richardson Debates: -Jan. 31, 2008 - CNN/Los Angeles Times Democratic debate in Hollywood, CA. > Official Results  Joe Biden 18,261 0.3% Dennis Kucinich 24,126 0.5% Barack Obama 2,186,662 43.2% Bill Richardson 19,939 0.4% +Hillary Clinton 2,608,184 51.5% Chris Dodd 8,005 0.1% John Edwards 193,617 3.9% Mike Gravel 8,184 0.1% w/ins (8) 15 - Total 5,066,993

Republicans 173 Delegates: 3 RNC; 11 at-large; 159 by CD (3 x 53) and 170 alternates. 7.27% of the 2,380 Delegates. Allocation: At-large statewide "winner-take-all."  CD winner-take-all by district. Huckabee  |  McCain  |  Paul  |  Romney former: Giuliani  |  Hunter  |  F.Thompson Debates: -May 3, 2007 - Reagan Presidential Library Foundation/MSNBC/THE POLITICO debate in Simi Valley, CA. -Jan. 30, 2008 - Reagan Presidential Library Foundation/CNN/Los Angeles Times/POLITICO debate in Simi Valley, CA. > Official Results  Mike Huckabee 340,669 11.7% Duncan Hunter 14,021 0.4% Alan Keyes 11,742 0.4% Sam Brownback 2,486 0.0% John Cox 3,219 0.1% Rudy Giuliani 128,681 4.4% +John McCain 1,238,988 42.3% Ron Paul 125,365 4.3% Mitt Romney 1,013,471 34.6% Tom Tancredo 3,884 0.1% Fred Thompson 50,275 1.7% w/ins (9) 10 - Total 2,932,811

American Independent
Mad Max Riekse 13,597 (30.5%), Diane Beall Templin 14,811 (33.3%), Don J. Grundmann 16,068 (36.2%).
Greens
Ralph Nader 20,373 (60.7%), Cynthia McKinney 8,895 (265%), Elaine Brown 1,502 (4.5%), Kat Swift 1,028 (3.1%), Kent Mesplay 690 (2.0%), Jesse Johnson 590 (1.7%), Jared Ball 528 (1.5%).
Libertarian
top 5 candidates: Christine Smith 4,073 (25.0%), Steve Kubby 2,787 (17.1%), Wayne A. Root 2,284 (14.1%), Bob Jackson 1,441 (8.9%), Barry Hess 864 (5.3%).
Peace & Freedom
top 3 candidates: Ralph Nader 2,515 (40.9%), Cynthia McKinney 1,346 (21.4%), Gloria E. La Riva 1316 (21.0%).

Turnout
Nine million Californians voted in the primary.  "57.71% of registered voters cast ballots in the February election, marking the highest primary turnout on a percentage basis since 1980." -Calif. Secretary of State

Qualifying for the Ballot (Secretary of State)
Be named by the Secretary of State as a generally-recognized candidate or circulate nomination petitions.
-Determination of generally recognized: For Democrats Secretary of State must make announcement by Dec. 4, 2007 (E-63); for Republicans and other parties announcement must occur on or before Oct. 8, 2007 (E-120).
-Circulating petitions: Oct. 8, 2007 (E-120) through Dec. 4, 2007 (E-63).

Voting Systems
On Aug. 3, 2007, following a top-to-bottom review of voting systems, Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced decertification of Diebold, Hart Intercivic and Sequoia direct recording electronic systems.

Setting the Primary Date
Part 1: On Sept. 27, 2004 Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) signed into law SB1730 which moves the state's primary back to June.  The legislation, by Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Irvine), had easily passed both chambers of the legislature.  Johnson termed the March primary an "utter failure."  His office noted, "In the 2004 Primary, California set a record for the lowest turnout ever in a presidential primary election.  In the 2002 Primary, California set a record for the lowest turnout ever in a primary election in our state's history.  And California's eight-month gap between the primary and general election resulted in the lowest turnout ever for a general election in November 2002."

Part II: On Feb. 24, 2006 then Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D), chairman of the Committee on Elections and Redistricting, introduced AB 2949, a bill to "require the Secretary of State to select a date that results in California being the first state in the United States to hold its presidential primary, as specified."  AB 2949 would also have required the presidential primary to be conducted entirely by mail.  Umberg's bill did not pass.

Part III: In 2007 there was a reinvigorated effort to move to an earlier presidential primary.  On Jan. 17, 2007, in response to a question at a Sacramento Press Club luncheon, Gov. Schwarzenegger stated,

"I've spoken to the leaders about that, and I think that it is just something that we should look at, because I'm interested to make California a player.  I mean, right now, think about it, we are the number one state in the union, we're the number one place in the world, and yet we are kind of an afterthought when it comes to presidential campaigns.  I mean, all those guys come out here and they clean up, and they take the money and they run; millions and millions and millions of dollars, both parties.  But we have no—we are not part of the decision making.  Or that they're even coming here and campaigning here, because they just it write if off, because California is not relevant.  So what we want to do is, we want to make California relevant.  And I think the way we make it relevant, this state, is by moving up the primaries maybe to February.  So this is something we talked about, and I think that that is something that we should shoot for."

There remains a June 3, 2008 statewide direct primary for U.S. Representative in Congress and Members of the State Senate and State Assembly.

Also of Note
On July 17, 2007(>) the Republican-leaning Californians for Equal Representation started an effort to qualify an initiative for the June 2008 state primary ballot, which, if it qualified and passed, would change the allocation of electoral votes in the November general election from winner-take-all to by congressional district.
 

General Election -- Tuesday, November 2, 2004

Official Results 24,035 of 24,035 precincts +Kerry/Edwards (Dem.) 6,737,355 (54.41) Bush/Cheney (Rep.)  5,501,496 (44.43) Peroutka/Baldwin (AIP) 26,580 (0.21) Cobb/LaMarche (Grn.) 40,598 (0.33) Badnarik/Campagna (Lib.) 50,101 (0.40) Peltier/Jordan (P?F) 27,548 (0.22) Total........12,383,678

2004 Overview Although Republicans had made some headway by electing Gov. Schwarzenegger and cutting the Democrats' registration edge, California remained a "safe Kerry" state.  Kerry gained a plurality of 1,235,859 votes (9.98 percentage points); he won in 22 counties to Bush's 36. General Election Details Kerry/Democrats  |  Bush-Cheney '04

Past Results

1996 Clinton (Dem.).....5,119,835 (51.10) Dole (Rep.)..........3,828,380 (38.21) Perot (Ref.).............697,847 (6.96) Nader (Grn.)...........237,016 (2.36) Others (4+w/ins).....136,406 (1.36) Total........10,019,484 1992 Clinton (Dem.).....5,121,325 (46.01) Bush (Rep.).........3,630,574 (32.61) Perot (Ind.)..........2,296,006 (20.62) Others (3+w/ins).......83,816 (0.75) Total........11,131,721

2000 +Gore/Lieberman (Dem.) 5,861,203 (53.45) Bush/Cheney (Rep.) 4,567,429 (41.65) Phillips/Frazier (AIP) 17,042 (0.16) Nader/LaDuke (Grn.) 418,707 (3.82) Browne/Olivier (Lib.) 45,520 (0.42) Hagelin/Goldhaber (NLP) 10,934 (0.09) Buchanan/Foster (Ref.) 44,987 (0.41) W.M.Kenyon, Sr. (Ind.w/i) 6 -  David McReynolds (Ind.w/i) 28 -  Total........10,965,856 Total Registration: 15,707,307...Dem. 7,134,601 (45.4%)   Rep. 5,485,492 (34.9%)   AIP 321,838 (2.1%)   Grn. 138,734 (0.9%)   Lib. 94,900 (0.6%)   Ref. 79,152 (0.5%)   NL 58,275 (0.4%)   Misc. 137,999 (0.9%)   Decline 2,256,316 (14.4%) Total Votes Not Cast in Presidential Race 177,010 (1.6%) 2,739,155 of the 11,142,843 total votes cast were by absentee ballot -- 24.58%. Turnout as a percentage of voting age population was 44.80% or 44.09% if one excludes the 177,010 votes not cast in the presidential race.  (U.S. avg. 53.76).

2000 Overview Brash talk and a significant investment of resources by the Bush campaign and the Republican party failed to pry California's 54 electors out of the Democratic column.  As in other recent statewide elections, the Democrats' registration edge of about 10% held solid; Vice President Gore won with a plurality of 1,293,774 votes (11.80 percentage points).  Los Angeles County weighed in heavily, producing a plurality of more than 800,000 votes for Gore.  Overall, Gore won in 20 counties to Bush's 38.  Early in the campaign it appeared Ralph Nader might be a factor.  From Aug. 1 to Election Day he spent 13 days campaigning in Calif., but he ended up not having much impact on Gore's showing.  Pat Buchanan failed to make a mark despite significant TV buys.  General Election Activity

Other Races: Four U.S. House seats changed from Republican to Democratic control, bringing the state's House delegation from 28D and 24R to 32D and 20R.  In the 15th (San Jose), Assemblyman Michael Honda (D) took the seat vacated by Rep. Tom Campbell (R) 54%-42%; in the 27th (Pasadena/San Gabriel), State Senator Adam Schiff (D) defeated incumbent Rep. James Rogan (R), one of the House impeachment managers, 53%-44% in a very costly campaign (the two raised over $10 million); in the 36th (Torrance), Jane Harman (D) narrowly defeated incumbent Rep. Steve Kuykendall (R) to reclaim her former seat, and in the 49th (San Diego), Assemblywoman Susan A. Davis defeated incumbent Rep. Brian Bilbray (R) 50%-46%.  The 20th (lower San Joaquin Valley) was also very closely fought, but Cal Dooley (D) successfully fended off a challenge from Rich Rodriguez (R).  In the U.S. Senate race, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) easily overcame a challenge from Rep. Tom Campbell (R), winning with a plurality of more than 2 million votes.

Ballot Qualification:
Two ways to qualify for the ballot: (1) Secretary of State determines candidate is generally recognized; or (2) circulate nominating petitions.  "Selection is based on any combination of several criteria, including but not limited to: being generally recognized as seeking the office; qualifying for federal matching funds; appearing in public opinion polls, candidates' forums, debates, etc.; being on the ballot in other states' primaries; actively campaigning in California; having a campaign office in California." [2004 Presidential Primary Candidate Qualifications and Requirements (2)]. On December 24, 2003 Secretary of State Kevin Shelley certified the names of candidates he had selected to appear on the March 2, 2004 primary ballot.  The list had 10 Democrats, 1 Republican, 1 American Independent, 4 Greens, 3 Libertarians, and 2 Peace ? Freedom candidates.

Deadline to register to vote in the March 2 primary is February 16, 2004.

Total Registration, February 17, 2004: 15,091,160
Dem. 6,518,631 (43.20%)   Rep. 5,364,832 (35.55%)   AIP 291,055 (1.93%)   Grn. 157,749 (1.05%)   Lib. 86,053 (0.57%)   NL 30,597 (0.20%)   P?F 70,475 (0.47%)  Misc. 91,729 (0.61%)   Decline 2,480,039 (16.43%)

Democrats

Historical Notes.
On June 26, 2000 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the blanket primary system used in California's March 7, 2000 primary in California Democratic Party v. Jones on the grounds that it violated "a political party's First Amendment right of free association."

On Sept. 30, 2002 Gov. Gray Davis vetoed SB1975, a bill introduced by Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Orange County) to keep the presidential primary on the first Tuesday in March of presidential election years, but separate the statewide primary election and move it to the first Tuesday after the first Monday in June (Johnson's initial bill had August).  Johnson sought to create a dual or bifurcated primary primarily to address the problem of low voter turnout--the statewide primary comes a full eight months before the general election.  However, in his veto message Gov. Davis noted the statewide cost estimated at as much as $10 million.
 

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