South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Some in GOP leaving party
Fla. Republicans are changing voter registrations
The rampage through and temporary takeover of the Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump, incited by the president, may be prompting some Florida voters to leave the Republican Party.
The numbers are small, but notable. In Miami-Dade, the state’s most populous county, more than seven times as many Republicans as Democrats changed their party registrations in the aftermath of the violence in Washington, D.C. The ratio of Republican to Democratic switches was almost as high in Palm Beach County, the third most populous.
Broward, the second most populous county, was different from the counties to the north and south; there were fewer switchers and it wasn’t lopsided the way it was in the other two counties .
More voter switches may be coming. Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link and the Broward Supervisor of Elections Office director of voter services, Sharon Flemming,said callers have been citing what happened in Washington, D.C., when they call to ask how to switch parties.
Flemming said there’s been a noticeable increase. “It’s not normal for this time of year,” she said.
It may be a response, at least in part, to what people saw on their phones, laptops
and TV screens on Wednesday when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol and disrupted the formal counting of Electoral College votes that enshrined President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
“It is not surprising,” said Kathryn DePalo-Gould, a political scientist at Florida International University, said about subsequent voter registration changes. Still, she emphasized, it’s premature to draw major conclusions from early, small numbers.
“I would say it is too early to make sweeping assumptions here about what is going on,” DePalo-Gould said.
Miami-Dade County
Figures from the MiamiDade County Elections Department show 708 Re p u b l i c a n s c h a n g e d their party registrations on Thursday and on Friday morning. By comparison, 96 Democrats switched.
Most of the Republican switchers went to no party affiliation/independent.
Among the former Republicans, 431 changed to no party affiliation and 171 registered as “independent.”
(There’s an unusual feature in Florida. What most people think of as an independent voter is actually “no party affiliation.” The “Independent Party” is technically a minor political party. Many people who choose it actually want the status that comes with NPA. Often, Link said, it requires some explaining, especially for people who mistakenly believe going “NPA” means they are no longer registered to vote.)
DePalo-Gould said the movement to NPA/independent isn’t surprising. “More people switch to NPA than do a total party switch. They feel the party doesn’t represent me anymore, but I just can’t go completely over,” she said.
Most of the Democratic departures, which totaled a much smaller number, also moved toward NPA/ independent party, with 61 registering as NPA and 13 as independent for a total of 74.
Switches to the opposite party were much less frequent, with 89 Republicans becoming Democrats and 22 Democrats becoming Republicans.
Also, 14 Miami-Dade County Republicans — but no Democrats — became Libertarians.
Small sample
The 929 switches in a day and a half is miniscule compared to Miami-Dade County’s 1.6 million registered voters. That’s also the case in Broward, where 265 out of the county’s 1.3 million registered voters switched on Thursday.
In Palm Beach County, 497 people switched from Thursday morning until mid-afternoon Friday. The county has 1 million registered voters.
Palm Beach County
Of the 497 Palm Beach County switches through mid-afternoon Friday, 367 were made by Republicans and 58 by Democrats.
Among the Republicans who changed, 312 went the independent route (232 became NPA and 80 registered in the independent party). Another 44 Republicans became Democrats.
Among the Democrats who changed, 42 became NPA or independent. There were 15 Democrats who changed their registration to Republican.
Broward County
In Broward, 265 registration changes were processed on Thursday. “That’s quite a bit for one day,” Flemming said.
The numbers weren’t as lopsided in Broward as in Miami-Dade or Palm Beach counties.
A total of 92 Republicans switched. Most went the independent route (51 NPA and 18 independent, for a total of 69). There were 22 Republicans who became Democrats.
A total of 87 Democrats switched. Of those 54 became NPA or independent and 32 became Republicans.
What’s happening
Flemming said she expected it would take a few days for any real trends to show up in switches. And DePalo-Gould said it could take much longer — much closer to big elections in 2022 — to assess if there are major shifts in registration patterns.
DePalo-Gould said that people who made switches this week may not have suddenly decided to change solely because of what happened on Wednesday. It’s likely, she said, that those people were already contemplating leaving their party, and the week’s events provided the final impetus to do what they’d been thinking about.
There’s always a reckoning after a loss, as different segments of the party become disenchanted or wonder which faction (in this case Trump supporters versus anti-Trump Republicans) ends up controlling the party going forward, she said.
“If we’re looking at registrations right after a major event like this, just a few days, there are people already considering what party they want to belong to,” she said. “I don’t think this event was one of ‘I’m leaving now.’ ”
Calls from voters
Link said there was an increase in calls. “The phone bank was reporting that it was mostly Republicans and it was mostly people changing to no party,” she said. Mostly, she said, it was “Republicans saying that they were disgusted and didn’t want to be part of any party anymore, mostly, and they didn’t like the direction the country was going.”
Flemming said the Broward Supervisor of Elections Office received more calls than usual from people who wanted to know how to switch parties, most from Republican or Democratic to independent status. She said the interest was unusual for an early January day with no major election on the horizon.
Registered voters with a Florida driver license or state ID can change their registrations online, Flemming said. Otherwise it requires printing, signing and mailing a form to the elections office.
From no party to a party
A relatively small number of people chose to show party colors and ended their no party affiliation or independent party status.
In Palm Beach County, 29 people who had been no party affiliation or in the independent party became Democrats and 27 became Republicans.
In Broward, 41 people who had been no party affiliation or in the independent party became Democrats and 26 became Republicans.
In Miami-Dade County, 52 people who had been no party affiliation or in the independent party became Democrats and 47 became Republicans.