California's rather Soviet Senate election featuring two terrible Democrats is leading to world record enthusiasm for not voting.
As many California voters prefer "none of the above" as plan to vote for Loretta Sanchez.
Support for the Orange County congresswoman in the state’s U.S. Senate race not only lags far behind her rival, Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, but is matched by the pool of Californians who say they don’t plan to vote for either candidate, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.
Not having any meaningful choices in an election will do that.
The survey found 16% of registered voters, mostly self-described Republicans and independents, have decided to skip the first open U.S. Senate race that California has seen in 24 years — the same percentage of voters who favor Sanchez. Support for Harris came in at almost double that level at 30%.
And more than a third of California voters indicated they still “don’t know” which Senate candidate they’ll pick on Nov. 8, according to the poll, conducted for USC and The Times by SurveyMonkey.
There's no real reason for anyone to bother. Harris and Sanchez differ only in who around them might benefit from their victory. Their respective bases are tribal. It makes no particular difference to anyone who wins.
Although the Democrat-versus-Democrat Senate race sets the stage for the highest-profile contest between two members of the same party since California adopted a top-two primary election system in 2012, it also has sapped interest among California Republicans who don’t see one of their own on the ballot, Schnur said.
Three-quarters of self-described Republicans said they were either undecided or would not vote. The same goes for close to two-thirds of voters who described themselves as independents, and 29% of Democrats.
Lack of choice doesn't just alienate Republicans, but also removes independents and even some Democrats. Eventually you end up having to mandate voting because the alternative is the humiliating admission that there's no democracy.
Obama endorsed Harris in July. Sanchez responded with a scathing critique of the president, accusing him of being part of a political establishment that has failed to work for Californians. Days later, during a Spanish-language television interview, Sanchez implied that Obama may have endorsed Harris for Senate because they are both black.
At least Sanchez hasn't changed any.