WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Democrats halted a 20-year decline in Kansas voter registration numbers, but still trail far behind the dominant Republican party, official figures released Monday show.
On the eve of the 2018 midterm election, the Kansas secretary of states office released the latest figures showing more than 1.84 million registered voters in the state. All the political parties in Kansas added to their ranks, while the number of unaffiliated voters fell.
Democrats grew their ranks to 463,114 voters, comprising slightly more than 25 percent of total voters eligible to cast a ballot in the upcoming election. That halted a two-decade trend of lower registration for the party.
In 1996, Democrats made up 30 percent of registered voters in Kansas but their share of the electorate has been declining since reaching its historically low of 24 percent by early 2018, according to Bob Beatty, a political science professor at Washburn University.
So what we can say that in terms of party affiliation, Kansas is not becoming more Republican than it has been, and more new voters than previously are choosing a party rather than before, said Beatty. Its not a tidal wave, but its good news for Dems in this election, which might be close.
Republicans remain the states dominant party with a total of 817,713 registered voters, comprising about 44 percent of the electorate for the upcoming election.
Kansas GOP registration has fluctuated around 45 percent since 1996, Beatty said.
For the upcoming election, the number of unaffiliated voters fell to 543,403, or slightly above 29 percent of total registered voters. Libertarians trailed with 17,618 voter registrations.
Where the movement has occurred in the last 20 years is the slow drop of Democrats and the subsequent rise of unaffiliateds, Beatty said. So, what the new numbers show is a halt to that shift to unaffiliateds and a small comeback for Democrats.
Kansas has added 40,825 people to its voter rolls since September 2017. Both major parties in Kansas added more than 27,000 registered voters to their ranks this past year, with Republicans having a slight edge of several hundred voters over Democrats in the number of new and switched registrations. The number of unaffiliated voters fell as people switched to a party.
