With less than a week to go before Election Day, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla on Friday announced that an all-time record of 19,696,371 Californians were registered to vote before last week's deadline.
From the last midterm election in 2014, California saw an increase of 1,892,548 registered voters, according to Padilla.
"It has been nearly 70 years since we’ve seen a higher percentage of eligible citizens registered to vote for a midterm election. Registering to vote is just the first step in doing your civic duty—if you’re one of the over 19.6 million registered voters in California make sure you cast your ballot by Election Day," Padilla said in a statement.
According to the secretary of state website, the number of registered voters in California increased just over three percent since the last round of midterm elections. Among Bay Area counties, Contra Costa County witnessed the largest jump in registered voters.
In the South Bay, a number of voters have already dropped off their ballots early. Seven early voting centers opened in Santa Clara County over the weekend.
Those centers will remain open through Election Day for people to cast their ballots or register to vote conditionally if they missed last week's voter registration deadline.
