Election 2022: Results and races hold steady in Orange County amid low voter turnout

Mirroring trends across the state of California, voter turnout at the polls in Orange County was low — as of early Wednesday evening, the county Registrar of Voters office showed an estimated 19.2% of eligible voters cast their ballots in this year’s primary, although some ballots mailed by the Tuesday deadline may still be outstanding.

This compares to 2020’s primary election, when 50.1% of the county’s then 1.6 million registered voters turned up to vote.

Election officials reported that year that the turnout was 18.2% higher than in 2016 and 91.5% higher than in 2012. In last year’s gubernatorial recall election, 62.9% of the county’s 1.8 million registered voters participated.