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Highlands Today

Dems Gaining On GOP

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By GARY PINNELL

Highlands Today

Published: October 13, 2008

Everyone has statistics that supposedly prove whether John McCain or Barack Obama will be the next president. So how about this one?

Voter registration seems to be increasing across the United States, and Florida is no exception.

In the swing states, the Democrats are gaining on the Republicans, and again, Florida is not an exception.

First, Florida numbers, then a look at Highlands County:

As the state population has doubled over the past 35 years, the number of voter registrations has tripled. The state saw its biggest jump in registrations in 1996, when 1.5 million new voters joined the rolls. In the first eight months of 2008, only 268,000 have registered.

In 1972, Democrats outnumbered Republicans by 60 percent, according to statistics published by the Division of Elections. That gap diminished to a few percentage points by 2006, when there were 4,196,608 Democrats, 3,920,201 Republicans, and 10,385 independents.

Now, Democrats are again widening the margin. In August, there were 4,453,008 Dems, 3,954,884 for the GOP, and 10,744,090 who belong to one of 24 political parties, or have no party affiliation at all.

Democrats also have outregistered Republicans in Highlands County, according to statistics provided by Supervisor of Elections Joe Campbell's office. But the most interesting number is that 2,165 new third party and non-partisan voters have joined the rolls.

Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans hold a majority in Highlands County. Neither party can win without persuading a significant number of the 19.25 percent of independents to vote for their candidates, said Pat Hogan, chairman of the local Democratic Party.

"I think that's always been the case," said Hogan, struggling to be heard Saturday morning over 50 chanting Obama supporters in a rally at Democratic headquarters on Sebring Parkway.

The great number of independents, Hogan said, is likely just a case of people who vote for the man, not the party.

Justine Devlin, chairwoman of the Republican Party of Highlands County, could not be contacted Saturday morning for her comments.

Registered Voters

PARTY

Democrats

Republicans

Others

Jan. 29

24,742

27,807

10,571

Oct. 10

26,342

28,676

12,736

Totals

1,600

869

2,165

Source: Highlands County Elections Office

Gary Pinnell can be reached at gpinnell@highlandstoday.com or 863 386-5828.

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