In summary California’s decision to mail a ballot to every registered voter resulted in record ballots cast in the general election — but it was poor and diverse communities that fueled the increases. California’s poor and diverse communities fueled the state’s record number of voters in November, with ballots cast increasing as much as 42% in Orange County’s poor neighborhoods, an analysis of final voting data shows. Huge increases in voter registration and turnout swept through all sorts of California neighborhoods — rich and poor; highly educated and blue collar; ethnically diverse and homogenous — according to a Votebeat analysis of state and local voting data informed by census data.