Voters Changing Their Registration Back To Undeclared
I’ve been working on voting and targeting data this week and I noticed an interesting thing about primary voters.Republicans closed their primary to unaffiliated voters in 2002 and now you must be a registered Republican to vote in the Republican primaries.But voters are registering Republican for just the day and then changing back in huge numbers. It takes lots of paperwork to fill out multiple voter registrations once to change affiliation and once again to switch back. But people don’t like being forced to declare their loyalty, so they switch.
What I hadn’t suspected was the sheer numbers of switchers.
In 2004, there were a few hundred votes in Democratic primaries statewide. The Republican primaries included over one hundred thousand. But here are the current party registrations of voters in the 2004 primary,
| Current Party | 2004 Republican Primary Voters |
|---|---|
| R | 128044 |
| D | 8079 |
| L | 78 |
| G | 48 |
| None | 47398 |
Each voter on this list was a registered Republican on election day. Every one who is not has changed registration since the primary (except for a few hundred Democratic primary voters).
November 6th, 2006 at 9:04 pm
That is quite interesting. I know a guy who did a one-day switch, but I had no idea it was so prevalent.
November 6th, 2006 at 9:15 pm
It makes us wonder — those of us who run voter turnout campaigns — whether the switchers are potential Democratic votes or latent Republican votes. Who, if anyone, should focus on the switchers?
November 20th, 2006 at 9:48 am
[…] Remember that Republican Registration runs higher than Democratic countywide among active voters, about 26% D, 28% R, 46% I. But a lot of those I’s are Republican primary voters who changed their registration back to independent. Nevertheless, independents lean Democratic just enough to make Salt Lake County a slightly Democratic leaning county with all three countywide council positions, the mayorship, and Salt Lake votes for governor in the past two cycles all going to the Democrat. (I’d argue our candidates were just better, but that’s a lot of wins in a row.) […]