New numbers from the Pennsylvania Dept. of State this week showed that a district that had been a haven for Democrats has switched to the Republican side after 52 years.
Local officials said that 87,415 people in Luzerne County have registered as Republicans and 87,332 have registered as Democrats. This was after Republicans worked hard to get voters to sign up.
“The good folks of Luzerne County have heard our word.”
Only 83 more people have signed up to vote for Republicans than for Democrats.
The difference in numbers between Republicans and Dems is very small, but the GOP was able to erase the huge lead Democrats had by 2011, when they had 47,669 more registers.
“I’m happy and glad that the good people of Luzerne County got our message,” Gene Ziemba, the chairman of the Luzerne County Republican Party, said.
According to Democrats, young people who choose to register as independent do not agree with any particular party’s policies.
In 1972, when Richard Nixon easily beat George McGovern, Luzerne County had more GOP registrations than Democratic registers. After Nixon stepped down because of the Watergate incident in 1976, the numbers changed. In that election, 101K people registered as Democrats in Luzerne, but only 64K people registered as Republicans.
Recently, Luzerne made news when officials chose to remove four drop boxes for mail-in votes because they were worried about the integrity of the election and their own financial future.
Before the general election on November 5, Democrats will have until October 21 to try to make up the gap in registers.
