California Primary: Who showed up to the polls?

NORWALK, Calif. (KABC) -- The polls in California have closed and the ballots cast, but now the real question surfaces: Who showed up to vote?

While several ballots were still being counted, registrar officials were already deciphering information about voter turnout during Tuesday's primary.

"We saw turnout higher than what we typically see in a primary certainly exceeded what we saw in the 2012 presidential primary," Los Angeles County Registrar Recorder Dean Logan said.

While the voter numbers were high, they were not record setting. Logan credited the uptick to a frenzy of voter registration which he called unprecedented.

"If you go back, to even in March, we saw huge surges, 10s of thousands of new registrations. What we know is that a substantial number of them were in that 18 to 29-year-old bracket. So clearly there was some targeting in that particular demographic," Logan explained.

Nearly 650,000 registered to vote in the last 45 days before the deadline, giving California a record primary election registration of 17.9 million, according to the Associated Press.

But the youthful enthusiasm did not show up as much at the polls, Logan stated. He believed many received the message through the media that the presidential nominees were already decided.

"That's just speculative, but that may have had an impact on people deciding whether or not to show up and vote," he stated.

The AP reported ballots counted by Wednesday morning represented only one in four eligible Californians and one in three registered voters.

Turnout matters, especially in tight races. On Wednesday, workers continued to count the provisional ballots that were provided at the polls.

Because the parties changed procedures for the primary, many voters did not initially get the ballot that included the candidates they wanted to vote for. They had to obtain it at the polls.

"Every one of those ballots are looked at and once they're validated they will be included in the official results," Logan said.

Los Angeles County reported 240,000 provisional ballots, the highest number ever cast in a primary, according to the AP.

That certification was underway and a preliminary count of the unprocessed ballots was expected to be updated within 48 hours.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.