Republicans Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina face a tall order in their quest for the state’s highest political offices: Persuade voters they’re not just wealthy ex-CEOs looking to indulge their egos in politics now that their business careers are tapped out. That’s why their failure to perform the most basic civic duty — voting — for much of their adult lives is a potentially powerful issue, analysts say. It reinforces the notion that their interest in politics is less than sincere.

“It confirms voters’ suspicions that they’re running out of boredom or because they like the trappings of power,” said Darry Sragow, a longtime Democratic strategist who is not involved in either race.

The voting controversy has turned into early trouble for Whitman, dogging the former eBay chief at almost every turn in her run for governor. Although she repeatedly apologized for her poor voting record, she may have made matters worse when she said, “I was focused on raising a family, on my husband’s career, and we moved many, many times.” Many regular voters, of course, also have busy lives.

As for Fiorina, who has yet to formally announce her candidacy for the Senate, her spotty voting history has drawn less attention, but it’s widely expected the former head of Hewlett-Packard will have to address it. Records from the Santa Clara County Registrar’s Office show she voted in just six of 14 elections since 2000, skipping the presidential primaries of 2000 and 2004 and sitting out all gubernatorial elections, including the 2003 recall election.

By contrast, the other presumed candidates in the governor and Senate races — political veterans all — have spotless voting records this decade, records show. Republican gubernatorial contender Steve Poizner did miss one primary election in 2002, but that’s because he was living in Washington, D.C., for a fellowship and was not registered in California at the time.

The Mercury News did not analyze voting records before 2000 because of inconsistencies in how registrars in California and other states maintain old voting data.

Whether the issue permanently stains voters’ impressions of the CEO candidates or recedes to the background as the campaigns unfold may hinge on the overall sketch that emerges of them in the coming months. If they can make a compelling case that the state would benefit from their business acumen — a claim their opponents are sure to challenge — failing to vote may not matter much. The issue has come up for other candidates in previous campaigns — and it has not been devastating.

Republican political consultant Sean Walsh has advised two gubernatorial candidates with weak voting records — Bill Simon in 2002 and Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003 — and in both cases it caused a minor stir but faded quickly. He said he’d be surprised if the voting controversy is still making headlines next year.

“In this environment of record foreclosures and 12 percent unemployment, it’s the last thing that voters are going to base their decision on,” Walsh said. His advice to Whitman and Fiorina: Settle on an explanation for their voting behavior, stick to it and move on.

In 1998, Sragow managed the gubernatorial campaign of former airline tycoon Al Checchi, who also had a spotty voting record. But while the issue was raised at times by opponents to sow suspicions of Checchi’s motivations, it never became a focal point of the race. The former Northwest Airlines chief executive took much more heat for spending millions of his personal fortune on attack ads.

But Sragow does not necessarily think the issue will fade this time around. For Whitman and Fiorina, he said, the significance of their voting histories will “depend on how it fits in with other pieces of information” — supplied by the candidates themselves as well as their opponents and the media — that emerge over the course of the campaign.

The Mercury News interviewed a dozen Bay Area voters — Republicans, Democrats and independents — to try to gauge how much of a difference a candidate’s voting record will make. Most said it would certainly affect their vote — though it wouldn’t be the most important thing on their minds when they enter the polling booth.

“Frankly, I’d much rather have someone who is a nonpolitician,” said Republican Victor Critchfield, a 48-year-old Los Altos contractor. “I’d rather have someone who has had a real job and isn’t a political weasel.”

Of Whitman and Fiorina, Critchfield said: “I think the fact that they’re successful businesswomen who have run companies and have had tens of thousands of people working for them is more important than how many times they’ve voted.”

But Hayward voter Judy Vetrovec believes voting records matter. Calling the duo’s voting history a “black mark but not a disqualification,” the 67-year-old independent added that she doesn’t accept Whitman’s explanation that she was too busy raising her children and moving. Vetrovec said she raised five children and always found time to vote.

“With absentee and mail-in ballots, they make it so easy to vote in the leisure of your home,” she said. “So to me, it means she truly doesn’t understand how important voting is. That bothers me.”

As CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group for the past 14 years, Carl Guardino has dealt with a lot of executives who are focused on research and development, marketing and running companies — and don’t see much relevance in the political antics in Sacramento and Washington.

“But I think in life people have light-bulb moments,” he said, saying he could understand Whitman’s explanation that she suddenly became interested in the political world when she saw how government rules and regulations were “getting in the way” of eBay and other businesses.

The voting controversy was sparked by a Sacramento Bee story last month that suggested Whitman did not register to vote until age 46. That claim has since been debunked, but there’s no doubt she has a checkered voting record.

As infrequently as Fiorina has voted this decade, her voting record in the decade before she moved to California is even worse. Fiorina did not go to the polls at all from 1989 to 1999 when she was living in New Jersey, her spokeswoman, Beth Miller, confirmed.

“She’s clearly on record saying it’s bad not to vote, and she regrets not voting,” Miller said. She added that Fiorina would have more to say about her voting record if she decides to forge ahead with a Senate campaign. Fiorina is expected to decide whether to run within the next several weeks.

Contact Mike Zapler at 202-662-8921.