Democrats swell Pike voter registration before primary

MILFORD — Less than two weeks remain until the April 22 primary elections, and new state data shows voter registration in Pike County has increased by 1,083. There are now 43,666 total registered voters in Pike County as of press time. Following statewide trends, the local Democrats made the largest gains between Jan. 1 and the registration deadline, adding 610 new members to the rolls. Yet the Democratic Party made more gains by changes in party identification. Precisely 630 voters switched from Republican or another affiliation to Democrat since the beginning of the year. On the other hand, 277 additional Republicans registered, and 70 switched into the party. That means the net gains by party between the last year and now is 1,569 for the Democrats and 58 for the Republicans. There was a net loss of 167 third party or no affiliation voters. Still, Pike Republicans outnumber Democrats by about 3,700 votes. Statewide since Jan. 1, the Democratic Party had a net gain of about 300,000 while Republicans lost 70,000 voters. For the first time, registered Democrats in Pennsylvania broke four million, and lead Republicans by about one million. “Democrats are seeing increased registration because people are excited about the two candidates and the opportunity to see the first woman or African American president,” said Jay Tucker, Pike County coordinator of the Clinton campaign. “We are seeing a lot of Republicans switch into our party.” Asked if there were ulterior motives at hand, Tucker replied that they have not encountered any situations when phone banking that would lead him to believe the newly registered voters were not true Clinton supporters. Tucker said that the northeast part of the state is solid Clinton country and that wins by large margins here will be necessary to offset expected defeats in strong Obama areas. Other big races on the ballot on April 22 include the Republican Congressional contest between Chris Hackett and Dan Meuser. Sample primary ballots are posted on the elections page of www.pikepa.org. All registration data can be accessed at www.dos.state.pa.us.