LOS ANGELES _ As the presidential ballots are counted Tuesday, the state with the greatest bounty of electoral college votes is unlikely to be a stage of high drama.
California gave America three Republican presidents in the 20th century _ Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan _ but its citizens haven't voted for a Republican presidential candidate since they narrowly picked George H.W. Bush in 1988.
This time around, the state's 55 electoral votes are considered a given in Democrat Hillary Clinton's tally.
"In California, even if I don't vote, it doesn't matter," said Dexter Jayawardhana, 70, of Silver Lake, a supporter of Republican nominee Donald Trump. "It's like throwing your vote into the river."
Nevertheless, he plans to cast a ballot, as will millions of other Californians. Many are focused on the state, county and local offices that are up for grabs, as well as the fate of 17 statewide ballot measures.
Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California, said the disconnect between the Republican Party and the majority of Californians has been growing for decades. Conservative strongholds persist, including pockets of San Diego and Orange counties.
But as Californians on the whole have drifted leftward on a variety of issues _ among them abortion rights, gun control, same-sex marriage and environmental protection _ the Republican Party has moved to the right, Schnur said.
"Republicans are still running as if California were culturally, socially and demographically in the 1980s," Schnur said. "That's obviously not the case."
The last time a Republican presidential candidate took California by a strong margin was in 1984, when Ronald Reagan trounced Walter Mondale by about 16 percentage points. In 1988, Bush defeated Democrat Michael Dukakis by about 3 points.
Democrats won the state in the next six contests. Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and speechwriter for Pete Wilson when he was governor in the 1990s, said the state's loss of aerospace jobs early in that decade, and a booming Latino population, fueled the shift from red to blue.
Presidential elections in California "have become predictable mail-it-in affairs," Whalen said, adding: "Lack of competition is never a good thing in a democracy."
President Barack Obama has come to California repeatedly with the goal of raising money, he said, but not to tackle the state's problems. And the state is left out of the barnstorming treatment candidates lavish on swing states such as Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
"If (California's) 55 electoral votes were at stake, the next president would spend a lot more time on the ground here solving problems, not collecting checks," Whalen said.
Joanne Polite, 76, of Silver Lake, is a Clinton supporter and retired school administrator who voted by mail.
She is glad to live in a blue state, she said, but is nervous about the presidential outcome and didn't want to take any chances.
"Just because it's a Democratic state, it doesn't mean I don't have to vote," Polite said. "I can't say Hillary is a shoo-in right now."
Along with the presidential race, she said she will be closely watching the results of Measure M, a transportation sales tax she supports.
As she walked up a hill on a residential block in Silver Lake, she said the city needs mass transportation akin to New York City's. "That should've started in the '40s and '50s," she said. "Transportation will make a big difference. ... We need it very badly."
She also voted for Proposition HHH, a bond measure meant to reduce homelessness. She said she is disheartened by the disparity between Beverly Hills and skid row. "It's so expensive, so hard to find decent housing," she said. "We have to consider that."
Jayawardhana, the Trump supporter, said he hasn't decided on every proposition on the ballot, but is passionate about blocking the legalization of recreational marijuana. "In the future, more people will be using, and there will be problems," he said. "California's going to be in trouble."
Ely Malkin, 60, of Beverly Hills, who describes himself as a "non-doctrinaire" Democrat, said he will oppose Proposition 61, which puts price limits on prescription drugs for state-run health programs, because "it could cause unintended consequences elsewhere, like higher prices."
Malkin said he would normally support marijuana legalization but opposes Proposition 64, the pro-pot initiative, because it lacks a sunset provision that would take into account its effect on accidents or pot-related deaths.
At a cafe in Newport Beach, Joseph Redmond, 22, a first-time voter who recently earned a degree in finance from the University of San Diego, said it's a common lament among millennials that their votes for president don't hold great weight in California.
"It's less exciting for voters here. What if we were in Ohio?" he said. "That would be kind of cool, to be there and to know that your vote would really make a difference."
Maya White, 42, of Laguna Niguel, a hotel industry veteran, is a Democrat who said she didn't make assumptions when it came to the state's voting patterns.
"California can be wild," she said. "This election has been so unpredictable _ who can tell?"
Adaline Fagen, 63, of Santa Monica, said she was confident of a Clinton victory but wanted to add her vote to the total. "I want her to win big," she said. "Not just win, but win big."
