The new category will label voters as having an "Unknown" party preference and would apply mostly to voters registering at the Department of Motor Vehicles, where a new voter registration process recently was implemented . Paul Mitchell, vice president of Political Data Inc. which sells voter data to campaigns and their consultants, says he sees the "Unknown" voter category as a way for Democrats and Republicans to fight the perception that more voters are rejecting parties altogether. "Unknown" voters, by law, wouldn't be counted as part of the total number of registered voters for the purpose of determining a party's ballot eligibility. While they are still registered to vote, their party currently defaults to "No Party Preference," a designation that accounts for almost 1 in every 4 California voters. Starting next year, when the state's new motor-voter law goes into effect, those voters instead will be labeled as "Unknown."

Source: Los Angeles Times June 15, 2016 20:03 UTC