California candidates work to woo voters as election nears

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 yesterday 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.

According to county data compiled by the non-partisan Political Data Inc. most California voters — more than 13 million — received mail-in ballots and more than 3 million people had cast them as of Friday.