California candidates make final push to rally midterm voters

SACRAMENTO - Californians will help determine which party controls the U.S. House, choose a successor for the state’s longest-serving governor, and weigh in on ballot measures to repeal a tax increase and expand rent control in this year’s midterm election.

Candidates made their final pitches Sunday as campaign volunteers furiously worked to make sure their voters show up at the polls or postmark their ballots.

It’s California’s fourth election since voters adopted a primary system that allows two candidates of the same party to face off.

That’s produced contests between two Democrats in a handful of federal and state races, showcasing the party’s dominance over Republicans in the nation’s most populous state.

More than 19.6 million Californians are registered to vote. That’s about 78 percent of eligible voters, the highest percentage of registered voters in a midterm election since 1950.

Most California voters - more than 13 million - received mail-in ballots and more than 3 million people had cast them as of Friday, according to county data compiled by the nonpartisan Political Data, Inc.

Republican, older and white voters are more likely to vote early. As the election gets close, though, voters younger than 50 are returning early ballots at a higher rate than they did during the primary.

Here’s what to know ahead of Tuesday:

How the count works

As long as California ballots are postmarked on or before Election Day and received by Friday, they will be counted.

But because so many voters cast ballots by mail, it takes weeks for every ballot to be counted.

That means the outcome of close races may not be known until well after Election Day.

Depending on how Democrats fare in the rest of the country, the nation could end up waiting on California to learn which party takes control of the U.S. House.

The battle for OC

Orange County is experiencing an unusual amount of pre-election buzz and activity from Democrats, reflecting its importance as a national battleground for the U.S. House. U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom campaigned there Saturday.

In an upbeat Sunday morning rally, Democrats Attorney General Xavier Becerra and state Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon told volunteers that the election hinges on Orange County. Rendon said the “entire country and the entire world” would be watching the outcome.

The governor’s race

Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox offered a California-themed take on President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan while speaking to supporters in Sacramento. He promised to make California “affordable and livable again” and to make it “golden again,” a play on the state’s nickname the Golden State.

Cox has made California’s high housing costs and high poverty rate a central theme of his campaign. He was joined in Sacramento by Republicans Rep. Tom McClintock, who is expected to hold his seat, and Andrew Grant, who is seeking to oust Democratic Rep. Ami Bera. The three rolled in on a green campaign bus emblazoned with Cox’s slogan, “Help is on the way.”

Newsom, meanwhile, spoke Sunday at a barbecue organized by a Los Angeles labor organization where volunteers made phone calls to voters.

Following the money

In California’s tight battles for Congress, Democratic challengers have far outraised Republicans.

Democrats who brought in the most cash include Gil Cisneros, a lottery winner who gave himself more than $8 million; Harley Rouda, who is challenging incumbent Rep. Dana Rohrabacher; and Katie Hill, Rep. Steve Knight’s opponent.

More than $367 million has poured into campaigns to support and defeat the 11 measures on California’s ballot, which include eliminating restrictions on rent control, requiring cage-free eggs, and spending billions on affordable housing and homelessness prevention.

Proposition 8, which would cap the profits of dialysis companies, is by far the most expensive, with dialysis companies contributing $111 million in opposition. That’s the most raised on any one side of a ballot measure in the U.S. since at least 2002. A whopping $67 million of it comes from the ?Denver-based DaVita Inc.