{"id":348027,"date":"2026-06-05T14:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T14:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/348027\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T14:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T14:05:14","slug":"california-youth-on-track-to-make-up-a-larger-share-of-2026-primary-electorate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/348027\/","title":{"rendered":"California youth on track to make up a larger share of 2026 primary electorate"},"content":{"rendered":"

California youth on track to make up a larger share of 2026 primary electorate<\/p>\n

The details are complicated \u2014 more Californians ages 18-34 are registered to vote, but they are returning their ballot at lower rates.<\/p>\n

Young California voters are on track to make up a larger share of the 2026 primary electorate compared to the 2022 primary, according to an analysis of ballots counted so far by Political Data Intelligence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As of Thursday, voters aged 18\u201334 accounted for 13% of all ballots counted. That\u2019s a 4 percentage point increase from the 2022 primary at this time.<\/p>\n

One factor is that there are nearly 2 million more people in this age group registered than in 2022.<\/p>\n

Paul Mitchell, a vice president at PDI, said this is due in part to a change in policy that automatically re-registers California voters when they move from county-to-county<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Keep up with LAist.<\/p>\n

If you’re enjoying this article, you’ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less. <\/p>\n

\u201cYoung people have benefited from their registrations staying alive when they are constantly shuffling around the state,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n

Yet, the returns show that while more young people are voting, their turnout rate is still slightly lower than in 2022. (There\u2019s a longstanding trend of young people voting at lower rates than older voters<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Mitchell said that may change by the time all the ballots are counted.<\/p>\n

\u200a\u201dThose late voters were very heavily young people,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cThat could mean\u2026 if this pattern continues, a higher final turnout for young people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among those late voters was a group of students at South L.A.\u2019s \u00c1nimo Pat Brown Charter High School. About 40 seniors walked with their teachers Tuesday afternoon to a Washington Park vote center to cast a ballot for the first time. Nearly two dozen additional students signed up as poll workers.<\/p>\n

The school\u2019s government and economics teacher, Joel Snyder, has made civic engagement a key part of the curriculum<\/a> since the school opened in 2006.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aI think about how to make the pitch to them that democracy is important in their lives and is a public good,\u201d Snyder said.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what the students said motivated them to vote, edited for length and clarity. LAist is not publishing their last names because some discuss the immigration status of their family members.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jose, senior at \u00c1nimo Pat Brown Charter High School.<\/p>\n

\u200aI have immigrant parents, they aren’t able to vote, but I see that my sister’s able to vote since she is older, and also my older brother \u2014 and that motivated me to vote because I wanna do for what’s right for our state and our country\u2026 \u200aI think sometimes it\u2019s just hard having your own opinion on your own votes, and it is hard that people will have an opinion on whoever you vote [for], but at the end of the day, you’re doing what’s right for you, and that’s all that matters. \u2014 Jose<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Katherine, a senior at \u00c1nimo Pat Brown Charter High School.<\/p>\n

I felt like me voting was helping my community in a way. Some issues that are really important to me is that of ICE. Honestly, when the ICE raids were happening, I was really afraid for a lot of people in my community because it would stop a lot of people from going outside and just traveling the world how they’re supposed to. \u2014 Katherine<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Natalia, senior \u00c1nimo Pat Brown Charter High School.<\/p>\n

I\u200at’s really important that we have a representative who hears all our voices and our struggles and is able to implement them\u2026 \u200aPeople don’t like to come to these areas because they consider it dangerous. But obviously we live here. We should look out for our community and try to make it safer for everyone, not just for the people who are passing by, but for us who are living here. \u2014 Natalia<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Martha, senior at \u00c1nimo Pat Brown Charter High School.<\/p>\n

\u200aI wanna make sure that I actually use, like, the power I [get] as a citizen, and I wanna make sure that others also feel influenced to actually use their power and vote\u2026 \u200aMy message would just be you have a voice, make sure you use it, and that just know that other people are also counting on you, like your family and your friends. And it might be nerve-wracking, but after you do it for the first time, it’s just go with the flow. \u2014 Martha<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A group of students waits for their turn to vote at Washington Park in the Florence Graham neighborhood. <\/p>\n

At first I was skeptical about it. I didn’t wanna vote, because I was like \u2018my voice doesn’t really matter.\u2019 But at the final moment, I decided to vote because I seen my friends vote, and I wanted to vote with them, and also because I wanted to change, like, the way my community and where I live works\u2026\u200aOne thing I wanna see change is the homelessness problem because it’s gotten too crazy where I live. \u2014 Ivan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California youth on track to make up a larger share of 2026 primary electorate The details are complicated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[85385,142581,7,9,8,142582],"class_list":["post-348027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-2026-primary","tag-animo-pat-brown-charter-high-school","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-youth-voter-turnout"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}