With fewer than two weeks until Election Day, the deadline to register has passed.
There has been quite a buzz for an off-year election, and numbers released by the Pennsylvania Department of State show interesting trends for voters in our viewing area.
Lehigh County is one of eight counties in the region that has seen more Democrats switching to Republican than Republicans switching to Democrat.
Pennsylvania remains a purple state, but the trend is shifting toward a deeper shade of red.
From Bucks to Lehigh to Berks counties, more people are changing their party affiliation from Democrat to Republican than the other way around.
In three counties, the difference is by a few dozen voters; in five others, it’s by several hundred.
“But it has to be put in conversation with the overall numbers,” said Chris Borick, professor of political science at Muhlenberg College.
He said the numbers largely align with trends he’s seen in recent years. According to Borick, the trend is red.
“This is an off-year election where we see turnout generally decline,” Borick said. “The number of voters is much less than we’d see in a midterm or presidential election. Therefore, small changes in this part of the electorate—where it’s not as big as it is in other years—could have even more impact.”
However, thousands of voters, both Democrat and Republican, have left their parties this year and registered as unaffiliated. Pennsylvania has just shy of 9 million voters. Borick said these are important trends that could impact a state often decided on the margins.
“You may look at these and decide they are only fractions of the overall registration numbers, but fractions matter a lot in Pennsylvania,” he said.