The Democratic Party has 12 million more registered voters than the Republican Party, accounting for 40 percent of voters in states with party registration.
In 31 states where voter registration includes a reference to party, about 44 million are Democrats, about 32 million are Republican, and roughly 31 million are independent, according to the University of Virginia Center for Politics director Larry Sabato’s “Crystal Ball" newsletter. The 31 states include several Democratic strongholds like California and New York, but not deep-red states like Texas or several in the south-east, including Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Senior columnist Rhodes Cook notes that “Comparing party registration totals between states at a particular point in time can be a bit misleading, particularly because some may have recently completed a purge of ‘dead wood’ on their rolls while others have not. Often, the trend line over a series of years is more valuable to look at than a one-time registration count."
Cook also points out that the number of registered independents has risen dramatically over the past few decades to almost 30 percent of all voters in party registration states.
"With the growth in independents, many voters seem to be saying to the two major parties: 'a pox on both your houses,'" Cook writes.
"Yet it also can be argued that registering Democratic or Republican is far more of a statement than it once was. In the current age of sharp-edged partisanship, there is far more than a ‘dime’s worth of difference’ between the two major parties, so registering as a Democrat or Republican is a very intentional act of differentiation,” and according to Cook, “that makes the party registration figures worth looking at."