A record number of California residents have registered to vote in the 2016 election — more than the population of almost every other state, according to the California Secretary of State’s office.
Secretary of State Alex Padilla said Wednesday that 18,251,826 Californians can vote this year.
In the last four years, the number of Californians registered to vote has increased by about 1 million from 17,259,680 in 2012.
Padilla said that 18.2 million number is bigger than the population of every US state except for Texas, Florida and New York.
The numbers compiled by California’s 58 county elections offices reflect registration data as of September 9. State officials said registration continues to surge ahead of the deadline later this month.
More than 73% of eligible California citizens are registered to vote so far. The deadline to register to vote or update voter registration information is October 24.
“This is a major milestone,” Padilla said. “The high profile 2016 election cycle, social media networks harnessing the power of online voter registration, and relentless outreach by campaigns, businesses, elections officials, and community groups has led to this record number of voter registrations.”
More than 8,251,500 of those registered to vote are Democrats, making the political party 45.21% of registered voters. More than 4,888,700 are Republicans, nearly 26.8% of the registered voters.