Now here's something you don't see every day in good ol' Lancaster County: The number of registered Democrats has swelled by four figures in recent months —!\qwhile the Republican ranks have thinned slightly.

Unprecedented?

Probably.

Surprising?

Not in the least.

Even in this traditional Republican stronghold, the Democratic presidential primary contest has generated intense interest and, consequently, more than 5,200 new voters for the minority party since the November election.

Included in that number are at least a couple thousand Republicans who have joined the Democrats — whether permanently or just temporarily — to vote in the high-octane race between U.S. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on April 22.

"This is what we're seeing virtually everywhere in the state and in states where they're holding primaries and caucuses," said G. Terry Madonna, a Franklin & Marshall College political analyst. "Democrats are gainfully out there doing registration drives with volunteers and new technology, phoning."

As of late this morning, there were 86,690 registered Democrats, up 5,214 or 6 percent since November. Of those, 3,575 switched to Democrat from other parties — mostly Republican, county elections officials said.

"It exceeds my expectations, our projections," said Bruce Beardsley, who chairs the county Democratic Party. "Our hopes were to have 3,000 additional. I'm very pleased.

"I think it's an indication of interest in the presidential contest, but also a cascading effect; as we become more credible as a party, it becomes more OK for people to announce they are Democrats," Beardsley said.

There were 175,834 voters on the Republican side, down 483 or less than 1 percent — due in part to the number of GOP voters interested in voting in the April 22 Democratic primary.

U.S. Sen. John McCain appears to have the GOP nomination sewn up.

The deadline to register or switch parties is 5 p.m. today.

Of the 307,606 registered voters, 57 percent here Republican, 28 percent are Democratic and 15 percent are independents or third-party voters.

But the voter registration trends have been far more encouraging for the Democrats, whose membership statewide is all but certain to exceed 4 million — a level that neither party has attained before — by today's deadline for joining or changing parties.

Since last fall's election, the number of registered Democrats has increased by more than 111,000 statewide — about 3 percent — while Republican enrollment shrank by more than 13,000, or 0.4 percent.

Since January, of the more than 68,000 registered voters who changed their party affiliation, those who enrolled as Democrats outnumbered Republicans by more than 3 to 1.

Part of that is due to the Clinton and Obama campaign voter-registration drives here and across the state. "We're doing canvassing, knocking on doors, phone banks," said Dana Edelstein, a Clinton spokeswoman.

"If we talk to somebody on the phone and they are a Hillary supporter, we let them know, whatever party they are, that they need to be registered Democrat to vote for her," she said.

Pennsylvania's primaries are closed, meaning that only Democrats can vote in their party's primary, and only GOP voters can vote in the Republican party primary.

One big question is, what will the party-switchers do after the primary?

Rob Gleason, the statewide GOP chairman, told The Associated Press that his party would work hard to persuade them to return and help elect McCain.

He said that will include telephone canvassing, mailings and even handing out voter-registration forms at some polls on primary day.

"We know everybody who switched," he said. "When this (primary) election is over, we're going after those people. We're going to get them back."

Madonna said it will be hard to convince all of them to come back.

"There can be no doubt that this is going to carry over into the fall," he said, "where this is disappointment, disappointment and disaffection with President Bush, and with the war."

Beardsley said his party will try to convince the party-switchers to stay with the Democrats "by letting them feel welcome, let them know we appreciate them coming home."

PARTY SWITCHERS
Total: 4,680.
To Democrat: 3,575.
To Republican: 651.
To other: 454.

CONTACT US: tmurse@LNPnews.com or 481-6021