Surge Of PA Republicans, Democrats Switching Sides This Election
By Anita Oh
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- City officials say nearly 50,000 people registered to vote on Tuesday alone. That day marked the deadline in Pennsylvania.
Election day is only weeks away and there was a surge of Pennsylvania voters, rushing to register before Tuesday's deadline. Of the more than 8 million registered voters in the state, records show that some have made a change since January.
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Numbers from the Pennsylvania Department of State show that since the beginning of the year, nearly 100,000 registered Democrats switched their party affiliation to Republican, while nearly 40,000 registered Republicans have made the switch to Democrat.
University of Pennsylvania professor Matthew Levendusky said much of that shift was likely due to the April primaries in which only voters registered with a specific party could cast a ballot.
"Well, there may be some Democrats who were just genuinely excited about Trump, but there may have been a large number of Democrats as well who were like 'ahhh, I think Hillary Clinton has a better chance against Donald Trump than she does against John Kasich or Ted Cruz," Levendusky said.
In a campaign event last week, Trump hinted at potential problems at the polls in Philadelphia come Election Day, but Lisa Deeley, the Philadelphia City Commissioner, says that won't happen. "We're confident and we think the citizens of Philadelphia, certainly around the state and around the country, should know that Philadelphia is going to have a great, fair, transparent Election Day."
In the end, she says the most important thing is to just vote.
