Yesterday, news story after story talked about California's "record turnout", saying that 10 million would turn out to vote.

But a look at the California Secretary of State site shows that about 7.78 million voted. Some quick and dirty arithmetic on the 2002 general election shows (PDF) that about 7.74 voted.

I don't know if that extra 40,000 voters constitutes a record, but it's not an exactly earth-shattering rise in (still pathetic) voter participation.

Ultimately, it came down to turnout. The GOP got its people out, the Democrats did not.

Update: CNN analysis also says it came down to turnout. Minorities and the poor did not turn out.