The Democratic Party has far outpaced Republicans in recruiting new registered voters in Suffolk County in the past year, especially in the South Fork towns, on the backs of city residents settling locally and aggressive efforts by local party leaders to recruit new members.
Suffolk is still a generally evenly split political landscape with the total number of Democrats only topping the numbers of Republicans and Conservatives by about 20,000 voters out of a total voter roll that topped 1 million for the first time last month.
Voters with no major-party allegiances still make up nearly a third of all voters in the county as well as in each of the towns, putting any election within reach of any candidate and making voter turnout the key factor in a region where no party holds an overwhelming advantage and cross-party voting in local elections is common.
Countywide, Democrats extended their slight electoral advantage in the last year, growing their registration rolls by 20,463 voters, compared to just 5,958 additional Republicans.
But voters who did not list any affiliation on their voter registration, a status known in political circles as “blanks,” accounted for the second largest category of new registrants with nearly 8,300, and total 265,156 in all. Another 57,000 voters are registered with the Independence Party or one of the tiny minor parties [more].
