Montco Registration Gap Closer Than I thought

The GOP Registration edge is down to 21,000. We will most likely lose the majority this year.

Ken Davis assumed office in April 2004 with a 70,000 edge in GOP registration over the D's. He has lost 49,000 of it in under 4 years.

The numbers are staggering! During Ken Davis' tenure as Chairman, which, in reality, didn't start until September of 2004 (due to the legal battle following the 2004 chairman's race),two things have happened...one is that more new residents and first-time registrants are choosing "D". Secondly, Republicans have registered democrat to vote in primary elections and haven't cared to re-register as Republicans. Third, and most heinous, is they are disgusted with the party shenanigans and have changed their registration in protest.

If you break it down, in the last 42 months, an average of approximately 1150 people have changed their registration to, or registered as first time democrats and Independants. Pitiful is the word that comes to mind.

What I can't fathom is why, with these sorry numbers, Davis still gets any support at all...ponderous-simply ponderous.

An article in yesterdays Inquirer explains this phenomenon further:

Voter Interest Surges in Pennsylvania Suburbs

By Derrick Nunnally

Inquirer Staff Writer
An onslaught of queries about registering to vote in Pennsylvania swamped suburban election boards yesterday as the nation's attention turned to the state's April 22 Democratic primary to settle a nomination fight that Texas and Ohio could not.

"The phone's been ringing off the hook," said Patti Allen, assistant director of the Montgomery County Board of Elections.

The sudden tide of suburban interest in the primary had two consequences yesterday.

First was the surge.

"The day after a caucus or a primary, we typically see a surge in telephone calls, e-mails and people coming in. Well, this is to the extreme today," said Deena K. Dean, director of the Bucks County Board of Elections.

How extreme?

"The phone doesn't stop ringing, for one thing," Dean said. "Secondly, my e-mail address is out on our Web site, and, well, I'm just not keeping up. We've also had a steady stream of people coming up to the counter as well, which is unusual."

Another quick measure: Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's campaign picked up 5,000 new-voter registration cards in Delaware County yesterday, Chief Clerk Mary Jo Headley said.

In a matter of hours, the coming primary registered as a seismic event in the years-in-the-making trend of the suburbs' edging closer to political parity.

Yesterday afternoon, Montgomery County's voter rolls lost 79 Republican registrants and gained 48 Democratic ones, further narrowing the registration gap there to about 21,600, less than 5 percent of the county's total.

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