Should Mitt Romney vote at his beach house?
The question at first seems inconsequential, given that Romney is going to lose California. But it's not irrelevant for the Republican Party in San Diego County.
New voter registration figures released this week show that Republicans have a very narrow registration advantage over Democrats in San Diego County. That advantage is 100. Literally, there are 100 more registered Republicans in San Diego than Democrats; 510,792 to 510,692.
That advantage, as small as it is, clearly matters to party leaders, who boasted about it on social media this week. But keeping it won't be easy.
That's why this should be the moment to pressure Romney -- and his very, very large family -- to register in La Jolla. That could be a dozen registrations alone. The move would be a gesture of local loyalty -- particularly to San Diego Republicans who may suffer from traffic delays related to the presidential motorcade if Romney wins.
And Romney would be losing nothing by voting there. Yes, California is a Democratic state, but so is Massachusetts, where he currently resides.
They say that every vote counts. In San Diego, every voter registration counts, and Mitt Romney could reinforce the point.
U.S. & World
Lead Prop Zero blogger Joe Mathews is California editor at Zocalo Public Square, a fellow at Arizona State University’s Center for Social Cohesion, and co-author of California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It (University of California, 2010).
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