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Election Day 2014: A California Index

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Photo by John Myers/KQED (John Myers, KQED)

Ready, set ... vote.

Election Day is, for politics fans, kind of like the Super Bowl. Huge excitement, armchair analysis, a lot of pizza. But until the returns start coming in, it's also a chance to take stock of some of the mounds of data and anecdotes about the candidates and campaigns that have been laboring so intensely for your vote.

And so, as an homage to the legendary index of all things notable, a political index, California Election Watch 2014 style:

  • Estimated number of Californians eligible to vote: 24,288,145
  • Registered voters: 17,803,823
  • Highest general election turnout, presidential election year: Nov. 3, 1964 (88.38 percent of registered voters)
  • Highest general election turnout, non-presidential year: Nov. 4, 1958 (79.47 percent of registered voters)
  • Lowest general election turnout, non-presidential year: Nov. 5, 2002 (50.57 percent of registered voters)
  • Total number of candidates on Tuesday's ballot in statewide, legislative and congressional races: 330
  • Total candidates for those same races in 2010, the last general election before the Top Two primary: 463
  • California congressional or legislative races where both candidates are from the same party: 24
  • Total cash raised by GOP gubernatorial candidate Neel Kashkari in October: $1,677,170
  • Total amount raised by Gov. Jerry Brown in October: $14,275,016
  • Number of California Supreme Court justices on Tuesday's ballot for a "retention" vote: 3
  • Last time voters actually removed justices in a "retention" vote: 1986 (Rose Bird, Cruz Reynoso, Joseph Grodin)
  • Percentage of California's registered electorate that is Republican: 28.1
  • Percentage of Tuesday's expected electorate that will be Republican, per the nonpartisan Field Poll: 34
  • Most expensive 2014 ballot measure campaign: Proposition 46, almost $69 million
  • Biggest single donor in California this election cycle: Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, spending $22 million, mostly to kill Propositions 45 and 46
  • Percentage of California's registered voters identified as Latino: 23
  • Percentage of absentee ballots from Latino voters as of Monday (data via bipartisan Political Data, Inc): 11
  • Attorney General Kamala Harris' followers on Twitter: 30,580
  • Twitter followers of Harris' GOP opponent, Ron Gold: 18
  • Twitter followers of Sutter, Gov. Jerry Brown's dog: 7,506
  • Percentage of California homeowners in October public poll who disapprove of President Obama's job performance: 55
  • Percentage of renters in same poll who approve of President Obama's job performance: 55
  • Last time a Republican was elected to statewide office in California: 2006 (two: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner)
  • County with highest percentage of Green Party members: Mendocino (3.77 percent)
  • Legislative candidates receiving campaign donations from Facebook: 37
  • Days between first statewide race won by Jerry Brown (elected secretary of state on Nov. 3, 1970) and Tuesday's election: 16,072

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