Participation measured against the same-year citizen voting-age population. Audited cycles count total general-election participants — ballots or participating voters, not presidential candidate votes.
2020–20243 cycles · 3 audited
2024 turnout
25.5%2,522 participants ÷ 9,871 CVAP
2020→2022 drop-off
+3.3 ptsPersistently low turnout
Drop-off vs state
-22.7 ptsPositive means a larger decline than the statewide pattern
Mechanical 2026
22.2%Recent-cycle and two-cycle persistence scenarios; not a forecast
Participation by cycle
Presidential Midterm
0%20%40%
6.7%
202020222024
Select a presidential cycle to show it on the map and results ledger above.
Cycle
Participants
CVAP
Turnout
Series
Quality
2,522
9,871 ± 545
25.5%
Audited
E/A
2022Mid
608
9,078 ± 591
6.7%
Audited
E/A
898
8,980 ± 561
10.0%
Audited
E/A
Sources and methods
2024: numerator source 160, denominator source 157; estimated total ballots; preferred-county:block-reference-presidential-or-cvap-weight:v2; allocation share 100.0%; series 323/229.
2022: numerator source 160, denominator source 157; estimated total ballots; preferred-county:block-reference-presidential-or-cvap-weight:v2; allocation share 100.0%; series 322/184.
2020: numerator source 160, denominator source 157; estimated total ballots; preferred-county:block-reference-presidential-or-cvap-weight:v2; allocation share 100.0%; series 321/4.
presidential history
Party record book
University of California-Santa Barbara, CA · the strongest Democratic and Republican presidential performances recorded here, measured three ways.
1992–2024 · 8 presidential cycles
Highest vote share
Largest share of the presidential candidate vote cast here.
Democratic
Joe Biden2020
91.5%
811 votes · D+86.0
Runner-up · Kamala Harris, 2024 · 86.1%
Republican
George W. Bush2004
23.2%
832 votes · D+53.5
Runner-up · Bob Dole, 1996 · 20.1%
Most votes
Largest number of votes cast for the party’s presidential nominee here.
Democratic
Barack Obama2012
3,847votes
81.3% of the vote · D+65.8
Runner-up · Barack Obama, 2008 · 3,184 votes
Republican
George W. Bush2004
832votes
23.2% of the vote · D+53.5
Runner-up · Mitt Romney, 2012 · 733 votes
Best relative to the U.S.
This Place’s margin against the national margin in the same election — positive when it leaned toward the party more than the country did.
Democratic
Joe Biden2020
+81.5pts D vs U.S.
Place D+86.0 · U.S. D+4.5
Runner-up · Kamala Harris, 2024 · +77.9 pts
Republican
George H. W. Bush1992
−38.7pts R vs U.S.
Place D+44.3 · U.S. D+5.6
Runner-up · Bob Dole, 1996 · −40.0 pts
U.S. House elections · 1 House
U.S. House
Each row shows U.S. House votes counted inside this Place. “Vote lead” is the local lead here, not necessarily the winner of the full contest.
University of California-Santa Barbara · which candidate this place backed in each party’s presidential nominating contest, cycle by cycle. A primary is a contest inside one party, so it has no Democratic–Republican margin and is not part of the general-election record above.
Akashic reports votes cast, not delegates awarded. The two can disagree: Clinton led the 2008 national primary popular vote by less than half a point and did not win the nomination.
Primary returns are published at county grain. The figures below are Santa Barbara County, California, the county containing University of California-Santa Barbara — University of California-Santa Barbara’s own primary vote sits inside those totals and is not separately reported.
Presidential nominating contests in University of California-Santa Barbara, by party and cycle.
○no contest record — Akashic holds no result for that party and cycle here. It is not a claim that no contest was held. Telling apart a contest that was cancelled, one that went uncontested, and one simply not yet ingested needs a nominating-contest calendar, which is a separate ingest from results and does not exist yet.
Republican presidential primaries are not yet ingested — the Republican series runs from 1856 and is in scope. The row is kept so its absence is visible: a Democratic-only panel would otherwise read as though no one else held a contest.
Akashic carries 10 states for 2012 and 3 states for 2024. Cycles in which an incumbent president seeks renomination are thin by nature — few states run a contested primary — so a sparse column is politics, not a hole in the record.
County returns carry a leader and a lead over the runner-up, and nothing more. The full candidate field with vote shares is published at state grain — follow a cycle above to the state contest for it.
UC Santa Barbara's campus CDP is defined almost entirely by its transient student population, producing unusually high youth-voter concentration and registration rates that shift noticeably between presidential and off-cycle elections.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 86.0 points in 2020. Between 2020 and 2024 the city moved 9.6 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 76.5 points.
A population of 12,121, a 45% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $69,327 describe the city. The city's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Isla Vista and Arcata.
Akashic
Political twins — cities
The cities whose fingerprint — 2000–2024 trajectory, demographics, ancestry, religion — sits closest to this one, and why.
Twin score (0–100) = weighted cosine between tier-standardized fingerprints: presidential margins 2000–2024 with 12-yr trend and elasticity, ACS income, age, education, population and race, top reported ancestries, and religious adherence — chips name the closest-shared dimensions and the widest gap. Re-weight the groups in the twins explorer.
How did University of California-Santa Barbara, California vote in 2024?
In 2024, University of California-Santa Barbara, California voted Democratic by 76.5 points (D+76.5), carried by the Democratic candidate. Out of 2,463 votes cast, 2,121 went Democratic and 238 went Republican.
How many people live in University of California-Santa Barbara, California?
University of California-Santa Barbara, California has a population of 12,121 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in University of California-Santa Barbara, California?
Median household income in University of California-Santa Barbara, California is $69,327 — below the national median of $80,734. The California state median is $99,122.
What is the political history of University of California-Santa Barbara, California?
Akashic tracks 8 presidential elections in University of California-Santa Barbara, California from 1992 to 2024. Of those, 8 went Democratic and 0 went Republican.
