SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The day after Super Tuesday, the San Diego County Registrar of Voters said it has about 275,000 votes left to count.
The county also showed trends indicating a historically low voter turnout for this primary election, with just 22% of San Diego's registered voters having their ballots counted.
Of the roughly 426,000 votes counted, an estimated 374,000 were mail-in ballots, while 51,000 came from a vote center.
ABC 10News spoke with Linda Beail, a professor of political science at Point Loma Nazarene University, to analyze the early results.
As far as voter turnout goes, Beail said the entire nation is seeing numbers similar to San Diego's: only a quarter of voters are participating in primary elections.
There are a couple of explanations for it.
First, Beail said there was little for people to get excited about.
Beail said the primary ballot really proved what she calls the power of the incumbency.
"I think it's really hard for newcomers to break into politics because again, incumbents have so many advantages, from recognition, fundraisers money, as well as trust and recognition," Beail said. "So, I think it's very difficult for a lot of new faces to appear and get traction and become well-known or well liked by voters."
Beail said the incumbent advantage is apparent from top to bottom of our ballots, starting with the presidential race, even down to the city of San Diego's mayoral race.
For example, Beail said Mayor Todd Gloria is ahead because he's well situated. As a Democrat, Gloria is naturally winning those party votes.
Beail's second explanation for low voter turnout was the lack of propositions on the ballot; there was just one for California voters to decide on for Super Tuesday.
Prop 1 interested many San Diego voters because it proposed providing mental health resources to the homeless and helping them get into shelters. This concern is at the top of many voters' lists.
"But it's gonna be costly," Beail said. "It's gonna cost some money to taxpayers, and it's gonna move some money around. I think it [Prop 1] was very complicated. I think it took up 68 pages in our voter guide to explain, and I'm not sure how many voters read 68 pages. I think at that point, a lot of voters just vote 'no' and say, 'I don't really know what this is. I'm not really sure what it will do and I'm not really sure I should vote for it.'"
The ballots are still being counted -- and Prop 1 will come down to the wire.
More unofficial result updates will be posted by the Registrar of Voters on the following schedule:
- By 5 p.m., Thursday, March 7 through Saturday, March 9
- By 5 p.m., Monday/Wednesday/Friday, March 11 through March 15
- Additional updates at discretion of registrar
