PUBLISHED 7/23/08 ----

There wasn’t enough on the June primary ballot to attract many voters. Enticed by only a couple of state propositions to go with the usual assortment of local bond measures and municipal office races, California voters turned out in the thinnest numbers on record.

Only 28.2 percent of California’s registered voters cast ballots in the primary — about 4.6 million of the  16.1 million eligible, or about half the 9.1 million who voted in the presidential primary in February. Kern County was only slightly better than the state as a whole: 29.5 percent voted.

It was a disappointment of historic proportions. Voter turnout was the lowest in state history for any regularly scheduled election going back to 1914, when such records were first kept.

The gallingly low level of participation did decide one issue, however, loud and clear: California can’t afford to have any more split primaries.

We’ve got to decide all of our issues and offices at one time.

Whether that is in February, when California would theoretically (but not infallibly) have more say in selecting presidential nominees, or in June, the more traditional month for our primary, is less important than having a single precursor to the November general election.

“As feared, turnout plummeted last month when there was no top-of-the-ticket excitement to attract voters to the polls,” Secretary of State Debra Bowen said in a statement last week. “Having a split primary was an effort worth trying, but based on the disappointing turnout in June, it’s not an effort worth repeating.”

Bowen also reported vote-by-mail balloting has apparently become the preferred mode in California. Some 58.7 percent of voters — a state record — cast votes by mail, rather than at precincts, the first time the majority of voters have voted by mail. In Kern County, vote-by-mail (or absentee) ballots were somewhat less popular, with 17.8 percent casting their votes that way. At least they voted.

Too bad 202,000 Kern County voters (out of the nearly 288,000 registered) slept through the whole thing. That’s a particularly grievous outcome for the local candidates who lost by only a few votes — and another reason why California needs to go back to a single primary.