Countywide : Republicans Widen Voter Registration Lead

Orange County Republicans have increased their lead in voter registration over Democrats to 161,539--the largest margin ever, Al Olson, registrar of voters, said Thursday.

The unofficial total of registered voters in the county, with some out-of-state registrations still trickling in, dipped slightly to 1,055,620, down from 1,104,230 in October, 1984. The registrations are for the Nov. 3 election and the decline is typical for such elections, which primarily involve school districts, Olson said.

“Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t make any big rush to get registered,” he said.

While both parties lost some ground from the 1984 figures, the Republicans widened their advantage by 4,367 voters. Twenty-seven school districts and one city, Buena Park, will hold elections in November, all of them nonpartisan contests.

Democrats have not led in registration since 1978, when they held a 3,015-voter advantage. In 1960, they had a lead of 458. Their most commanding lead was in 1936 when they registered 6,427 more people than the Republicans (the county total in 1936 was 65,954).

Olson broke down the registration figures this way:

Republican, 551,897.

Democrat, 390,358.

American Independent, 11,347.

Peace and Freedom, 2,137.

Libertarian, 9,140.

Miscellaneous, 864.

Nonpartisan, 89,877.