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Fact check: What was the voter turnout for Proposition 50 in the 2016 California primary election?
Executive Summary
The available official tallies show Proposition 50 received 7,409,345 votes in the June 7, 2016 California primary, with 5,601,054 votes (75.6%) in favor; statewide registered voter counts place overall primary participation at 43.6%, while Proposition 50’s ballots represent about 41.3% of registered voters. These figures come from California’s Statement of Vote and its supplement and reveal a modest ballot “drop-off” where fewer voters cast a vote on Prop 50 than the total ballots counted in the election [1] [2].
1. How the headline numbers add up — vote totals versus turnout
The Statement of Vote lists 7,409,345 total votes cast for Proposition 50 broken down as 5,601,054 yes and 1,808,291 no, a margin that produced a 75.6% approval rate for the measure [1]. The supplemental Statement of Vote provides the broader participation context, reporting 17,915,053 registered voters in California and 7,809,302 total votes cast in the June 7, 2016 primary, which the supplement equates to a 43.6% turnout of registered voters [2]. The difference between the Prop 50 total and the overall ballots cast—about 399,957 ballots—indicates a measurable ballot drop-off, where voters who participated in the primary did not register a vote on every measure [1] [2].
2. Reconciling two official numbers — why Prop 50 turnout looks lower
Using the supplement’s registered voter total, the 7,409,345 votes on Proposition 50 correspond to roughly 41.3% of all registered Californians (calculation from [1], p1_s3). The Statement of Vote’s statewide Prop 50 total is authoritative for the measure itself, while the supplement’s overall ballots cast and registered voter tallies frame participation as a share of the electorate. The gap between the 43.6% overall turnout and the ~41.3% Prop 50 participation highlights ballot roll-off, a common phenomenon where some voters skip ballot measures — a fact reflected in the two official products [1] [2].
3. What the official documents are and how they differ in emphasis
The Statement of Vote (published July 15, 2016) provides county-by-county results and a statewide total per contest, including the 7.4 million votes on Prop 50, focusing on vote counts and percentages [1]. The later Supplement to the Statement of Vote adds registration and participation statistics by county and statewide and explicitly reports the total votes cast in the election and the resulting 43.6% turnout [2]. Both are official outputs of the Secretary of State’s office; their different emphases—contest totals versus electorate-level participation—explain why one document highlights the measure’s vote counts while the other frames overall turnout.
4. Broader turnout context and demographic notes from contemporaneous reporting
Contemporaneous analyses of the 2016 primary noted an increase in turnout compared with 2012 and higher participation among younger and Latino voters, which contributed to the overall turnout dynamics in June 2016 [3]. Those reports do not change the Prop 50 totals but provide context for why overall ballots cast reached about 7.8 million across the state. The demographic reporting underscores that aggregate turnout shifts can coexist with ballot drop-off, meaning higher participation in the election does not automatically translate to identical participation on every measure [3].
5. Why small discrepancies matter for interpreting “turnout for Prop 50”
As a practical matter, “turnout for Proposition 50” can be reported two ways: (a) the share of ballots that included a vote on Prop 50 (7,409,345 votes out of 7,809,302 ballots cast — about 94.9%), or (b) the share of registered voters who cast a vote on Prop 50 (about 41.3%). The official sources provided emphasize the latter when discussing turnout as a share of the electorate and the former when reporting contest-level participation [1] [2]. Reporters and analysts must state which denominator they use; omission of that choice can produce misleading comparisons.
6. Final, concise answer and source trail
In short: Proposition 50 received 7,409,345 total votes (5,601,054 yes; 75.6%) per the Statement of Vote; the California primary had 7,809,302 ballots cast from 17,915,053 registered voters (43.6% turnout) per the supplemental Statement of Vote; therefore Prop 50 ballots represented roughly 41.3% of registered voters. These figures come from the Statement of Vote and its supplement [1] [2], with contemporaneous turnout analysis noting demographic changes in 2016 [3].