The 2024 Presidential Election is over and the vote is counted in Mendocino County. Total turnout was 39,837 ballots cast, a decline of 9.7% from the 2020 Presidential Election. Overall, 73% of eligible voters participated in Mendocino County compared to 64% nationally. While our participation was high by national standards, it was not record-breaking by Mendocino County standards as KZYX News originally reported. We will do better next time.
Compared to the 2020 election, President Elect Donald Trump picked up 261 votes for a total of 13,528 votes.
Compared to the 2020 election, the Democratic Party lost 4,733 votes. Just 24,049 ballots were cast for Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 compared to 28,782 ballots cast for President Joe Biden in 2020. That’s a decline of 16 percent. Roughly 1 in 6 voters who chose Biden in the last election did not choose Harris.
The vast majority of these voters did not choose a candidate from another party like the Libertarian, Green, or American Independent Party. They simply didn’t vote. We know this because the total number of votes for all presidential candidates declined by 9.5%.
This tallies with national results. NPR interpreted these results as showing the electorate moved to the right. Mendocino County results indicate, however, that Democratic voters here are choosing not to participate at all, versus voting for a Republican candidate.