Voter turnout inches up slowly in 10th District Assembly race; All important independent turnout lags

In the heated 10th District California Assembly primary race, voter turnout is slowly increasing as the clock winds down on voting.

According to information compiled by Political Data Inc., as of Thursday, June 2, 12-percent of ballots have been submitted. Voting ends on Tuesday, June 7.

In the 10th Assembly District, about 51-percent of registered voters are Democrats, and their percentage of the returned ballots is 59-percent. Likewise, Republicans make up 19-percent of the registered district voters and are 21-percent of the returned ballots.

Interestingly, Independent voters are 29-percent of the District 10 voters. However, as of yesterday’s vote tally, only20-percent in this category have submitted ballots.

While party voters are easy to target with messaging, appealing to Independent voters can be more challenging. Candidates in this race target these voters with messages on public safety and education.

Although unspoken, the top two candidates in the race, Democrats Sacramento City Councilmember Eric Guerra and Elk Grove City Councilmember Stephanie Nguyen are thought to have appeal to specific ethnic and racial groups. Guerra is of Latino, and Nguyen is of Asian descent.

Latinos are 18-percent of District 10 voters, and they are eight percent of the returned ballots. Asian are 23-percent of District 10 voters, and 23-percent of their ballots have been submitted.

As a percentage of the entire returned ballots, Latino is eight percent and Asians 12-percent of the total. In total, 32,199 of 269,817 ballots have been submitted.