The final numbers

The final voter registration numbers released yesterday by the secretary of state show that Ventura County fell just short of the 400,000 mark on its voter roll for today's balloting -- 398,6652.

Since the last report on Sept. 3, Democrats gained very slightly on Republicans, with 7,414 additional Democrats and 7,142 new Republicans. More significant, however, was where the new Democrats were added -- largely in the 35th Assembly District, the county's main partisan battleground today.

The district (including the Ventura County and Santa Barbara County portions) added 8,500 Democrats since Sept. 3 and only 3,800 Republicans. The new numbers boost the Democrats' voter-registration edge to 13 percentage points, 44.7 percent to 31.7 percent.

With those numbers, a victory today by Republican Bob Pohl over Democrat Pedro Nava would be a colossal upset. It would be virtually unheard of for a candidate to win a district when less than 32 percent of voters are registered with his party.