Since last September, more than 67,000 residents have added their names to Pennsylvania’s voter rolls.
And nearly 70 percent of them did not choose party affiliation.
The number of independent voters across the Commonwealth continues to grow, with nearly 46,000 people choosing the “no affiliation” option when registering to vote in “America’s Swing State” over the past six months.
Among the two major parties, Democrats appear to have stemmed the tide of voter registration losses, enrolling nearly 14,700 recent voters, while Republicans gained another 9,500.
Four examples of voters shunning the major parties can be seen this fall in four primary congressional races in the Commonwealth.
In PA-01, over 3,200 (3,255) chose the independent registration route, while Dems and GOP gained 961 and 320, respectively.
In the Lehigh Valley in PA-07, nearly 3,300 voted in favor of independent status, with Democrats (1,431) and Republicans (849) registering nearly 2,300.
Republicans had the best showing in NEPA, with 1,692 recent GOP registrants compared to just 50 for Democrats. But once again, independents led in PA-08 with 3,535.
In the PA-10 Capital Region, nearly 4,400 recent voters checked the “no affiliation” box on their form, compared with 2,134 for Democrats and only 210 for Republicans.
This quartet accounts for four of the five largest registration gaps between the state’s major parties.
- PA-01 (2.08): GOP 41.97%, Democrats 39.89%, Independent 14.18%
- PA-08 (2.33): Democrats 42.68%, GOP 40.34%, Independents 13.83%
- PA-07 (3.15): Democrats 41.32%, GOP 38.17%, Independents 16.91%
- PA-06 (3.54): Democrats 41.82%, GOP 38.28%, Independents 15.43%
- PA-10 (6.97): GOP 43.98%, Democrats 37.02%, Independent 15.63%
Statewide, independents currently make up 1 in eight voters (12.97%). Democrats still have a lead around the commonwealth at 42.75%, compared to 40.74% for Republicans. The 2.01% gap has increased by 0.04% for Democrats since last September.
“One of the things I promised to do was to focus on registering more Democrats,” PA Dems chairman said Eugene DePasquale. “That led to six months in a row of no Republican registration in Pennsylvania. So this is your first real survey, right, of how people are registering.”
