(Columbus) – Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced today that party affiliations have been successfully updated in the Statewide Voter Registration Database based on voter activity from the March primary election.
Under Ohio law, a voter’s partisan affiliation is determined by voting in a political party’s primary election. A voter is a member of a political party if:
(1) they voted in that party’s primary election within the preceding two calendar years, or
(2) they did not vote in any other party’s primary election within the preceding two calendar years.
Likewise, by law, a voter is identified as unaffiliated with a political party if they did not vote in a partisan primary election within the preceding two calendar years. Party affiliation numbers fluctuate based on a number of factors, most commonly influenced by voter participation in primary elections.
Ohio is a decentralized voter registration state, meaning the records maintained in the Statewide Voter Registration Database are provided by the 88 county boards of elections. According to the voter registration and voter history data compiled by the boards, Ohio’s voter affiliation breakdown is currently as follows:
Affiliation Totals
Number of Registered Voters in Ohio: 8,060,554
Number of Registered Democrats: 817,063
Number of Registered Republicans: 1,508,641
Number of Unaffiliated Registered Voters: 5,734,850
Kept Affiliation
Democrat to Democrat: 441,870
Republican to Republican: 841,266
New Affiliation
Unaffiliated to Republican: 284,948
Unaffiliated to Democrat: 114,079
Switched Affiliation
Democrat to Republican: 37,543
Libertarian to Republican: 188
Republican to Democrat: 20,845
Lost Affiliation*
Democrat to Unaffiliated: 302,404
Republican to Unaffiliated: 160,827
Libertarian to Unaffiliated: 1,545
*only includes voters in Active/Confirmation status without a private address flag
Ohioans with questions or concerns about their own party affiliation status should contact their county board of elections.
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