The Ohio Republican Party brought in three times as many new voters in the state’s primary than did the Democrats, according to data released by the Ohio secretary of state on Wednesday.
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Republicans gained 115,762 OH voters who previously been affiliated as a Democrat when they casted ballots during the Republican primary.
All in all, 1.8 million Ohioans chose to join or switch parties.
On the republican ticket, voters here are casting their ballot for Republican Senate nominee and for a Congressional seat.
“The numbers suggest the Republicans benefited from a more engaged and energetic primary when compared to the Democrats”, said Mark Caleb Smith, director of Cedarville University’s Center for Political Studies.
Voters do not register with a political party when they sign up to vote in OH; they are considered affiliated with the party whose ballot they cast in a primary.
Voter turnout in March was the second highest for a primary election in OH, with 43.7 percent of registered voters casting ballots.
Additionally, the Democratic Party attracted 710,067 previously unaffiliated voters, while the Republican Party attracted 910,131 of these voters.
Voters are urged to come out and vote in the 2016 Primary Election.
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A voter’s political affiliation may only be modified by requesting an issues-only ballot or the ballot of a different political party during the next-available partisan primary election cycle.
