by JD Davidson
There are almost twice as many registered Republicans as Democrats in Ohio, but the majority of Ohio voters are not affiliated with any political party.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose released recent numbers based on the March primary election.
Party affiliation in Ohio is determined by voting in a particular party’s primary election within the preceding two calendar years or not voting in another party’s primary election during the preceding two calendar years.
The statewide voter registration database shows there are 8.1 million registered voters in the state. Of those, 1.5 million are Republicans and 817,063 are Democrats.
Number of unaffiliated 5.7 million.
Based on the March primary, 441,870 Democrats retained their affiliation and 841,266 Republicans remained in the GOP. Additionally, 37,543 Democrats switched to Republicans and 20,845 Republicans switched to Democrats. There are 188 Libertarians who have converted to Republicans.
Republicans gained 284,948 recent unaffiliated voters, while Democrats gained 114,079.
At the same time, Democrats lost 302,404 voters to unaffiliated voters, Republicans 160,827, and Libertarians 1,545.
88 county boards of elections report party affiliation numbers to the statewide voter registration database.
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Ohio native J.D. Davidson is a veteran journalist with more than 30 years of experience at newspapers in Ohio, Georgia, Alabama and Texas. He served as a reporter, editor, editor-in-chief and publisher. Davidson is the magazine’s regional editor Central Square.
