Select one of the following files. The first thing to notice is the continuing decline in the number of registered voters in the city. This declining registration is undoubtedly caused by the increasingly larger fraction of the city's population that are not U.S. citizens. An enhanced effort must be made to bring the non-participating members of our community into the civic life of the city. It is from this population that most of the votes in an election come.
New registrations show a periodicity, being larger in years following a national election.
Finally we come to the number of voters in the current election. In the following, an attempt will be made to determine contributing causes. In the following table the number of absentee ballots is compared. Although their number is small and thus subject to large statistical uncertainties they are indicative. The 1995 ratio of absentee ballots to polling place ballots was exceptionally high.