Sacramento Bee Worries Too Many White People Will Be Voting In California : Millions of Californians missing from the registration rolls

The Sacramento Bee reports:

When polls close next month, voter turnout will be the main benchmark of Californians’ election engagement. But missing from the calculation will be millions of Californians who could have voted but did not register.

In a chronic phenomenon of under-enfranchisement in the Golden State, there are at least 6.4 million residents who are eligible to vote but were not on the registration rolls as of early April. California’s registration rate is close to last in the United States, and its legions of eligible but unregistered voters make up a disproportionate share of the nationwide total.

Experts say there are multiple reasons for the shortfall, such as residents here moving more often, bureaucratic hurdles and uncompetitive statewide contests that fail to capture the public’s attention. Whatever the causes, the result is the same: an electorate that is whiter, older and wealthier than the state as a whole and a large share of the population disengaged from the laws and representatives chosen in its name.

The Bee is worried about too many white people voting. No word yet on when the Bee will be doing an article on how registered Republicans are failing to gain tenure at University of California-Berkeley in proportion to their representation of the population of the state of California.