(Sacramento, CA) — Ballots are still being counted in California, but voter turnout for this election is expected to be low. California’s secretary of state estimates that about 16-million people voted, which is a turnout rate of about 69-percent as of Wednesday. That’s a decline of around one-point-seven-million votes compared to 2020, even though there are 550-thousand more registered voters and one-point-eight-million more eligible residents.

Dan Schnur, a political messaging instructor at USC, tells The Mercury News that California has increased the number of registered voters significantly especially with automatic registration, but many registered voters do not participate.