The 1st district increase amounts to nearly 40% of LB's new registered voters since the last citywide election.

Since Oct. 2012 (the run-up to the last Presidential election), 15,868 new names have been added to the City's voter rolls, 2,983 of them from the 1st Council district. This equates to a 1st district increase in registered voters of 15.2% while LB's other Council districts increased between 1.6% and 11.0% since October 2012.

From Oct. 2012 to March 2014, LB's registered voters citywide increased from 244,266 to 260,134, an increase of 15,868. Measured from the last citywide election (April 2010), as of Mar. 6 Long Beach has 21,840 more registered voters...of whom 8,515 (39%) are from the 1st Council district.

In LB's last citywide election in April 2010, 40,242 voters cast ballots out of 238,294 registered voters.

However LB's 1st Council district was and continues to be the second lowest in terms of registered voters. The 6th dist. is the lowest but had the second largest increase from the last citywide election.

LB's 3rd Council district has the largest number of registered voters; the 5th district has the second highest number.

LBREPORT.com provides below updated (Mar. 6, 2014) voter registration figures as well as other data from the City Clerk's website. Based on those figures, LBREPORT.com independently computed the percentage increases in this story for Council districts and citywide. Voter registration increases for Council districts 2, 4, 6, and 8 since April 2010 aren't easily available because even-numbered districts don't vote for Councilmembers in citywide elections; accordingly we cited figures from May 2011.

The numbers above come with several caveats. We cite them as reported by the LB City Clerk's office which received them from the L.A. Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. At their best, they're snapshots at one particular moment in time; real time numbers can and do change.

Voter registrations don't count; voting voters do. There's no way to know at this point what percentage of newly registered voters will or won't vote.

We don't know at this point under what circumstances the new voters were registered. For example, groups circulating initiative petitions routinely seek to register voters (since only registered voters produce valid petition signatures.) At least two petition drives occurred fairly recently in LB: a "living wage" measure at LB hotels and a medical marijuana related ordinance.

The "living wage" ordinance has been enacted; the medpot petition drive fell short and a Council majority ultimately put a measure on the ballot that appeared to leave some supporters of the petition drive less than pleased. Will the newly registered voters for those initiative petition drives turn out to be "one-time" registrants (who may not vote in upcoming elections) or will they be sufficiently motivated to support candidates who supported their efforts?

Were the new registrations part of an organized neighborhood-walking and/or door-to-door effort by labor interests, some of whom have in the past used paid walkers? [If you're familiar with what union-organized paid walkers do, we'd like to know more. Please email us at mail@LBReport.com or via Facebook at www.Facebook.com/lbreport.com.

[LBREPORT.com Ed. note: The increase in registered voters in the six month period between April and October 2013 was noted in a November 5, 2013 perspective piece by Long Beach Business Journal publisher George Economides at this link.]

And there's this recent added twist: As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, nearly 1,600 completed voter registration cards -- from 2012 and 2013 -- were found in a trash can in Long Beach. The L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk is investigating.

Finally: the last day to register to vote in the Long Beach April 8 city elections is March 24, 2014.

Stay with LBREPORT.com, your independent online news outlet of record for detailed coverage of LB's 2014 election cycle.