KY: The state now has 1,676,743 registered Democrats

[UCmeNdc]

Link to tweet

[Boogiemack]

19. If you understand what a like of GOP supporters do, they register Democratic so that

they can control the state and local legislatures. Label don't matter. Voters have to watch what a candidate says and does.

There was an article by a research journalist about this during the 2016 elections. The GOP in the article even bragged about doing this in places like W. VA, KY etc. I have searched on Google to find the article but can't. Maybe some of you out there are familiar with it? Maybe it has been scrubbed from the Internet?

Still searching.

[Mr. Evil]

26. I believe this was it.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100214533572

[c-rational]

2. Voter suppression and outright fraud. I bet they use electronic machines. Investigate and sue.

[LisaL]

3. Not all democrats vote for a democrat.

Must we participate in ridiculous conspiracy theories?

[LisaL]

6. Well, when I see claims that Kentucky is actually blue,

I think it's very silly.

[Bleacher Creature]

9. Agree. I suspect that a lot of those Democrats are older and just haven't changed their party.

The same probably holds true for West Virginia.

[Staph]

11. I know that is true for West Virginia.

Older voters who used to vote Democratic simply haven't bothered to change their party designation. I suspect it is true for Kentucky as well.


Edited to add: as of October 2020, in West Virginia, there were 470,483 registered Democrats, 458,391 registered Republicans, 288,308 registered as no party, and some 40K for other parties. And yet, Trump got 539,610 votes and Biden got 232,502, with about 13K for other candidates. No one is suggesting that West Virginia is a hot bed of campaign dirty tricks and stolen votes, because nationally no one cares whether Shelley Moore Capito is re-elected. She's the junior senator from West Virginia, for those who never heard her name.

But a bunch of folks have their panties in a bunch because Mitch McConnell won his election. He won because he brings home the bacon. 'Nuf said.

[regnaD kciN]

13. But WV just swung hard right around 20 years ago...

KY, along with the rest of the “old south” states, did so after the Civil Rights Act. Most of the voters in those states went with Wallace in 1968, then landed in the GOP for good in 1972. Granted, I can imagine some older voters who never changed party affiliation, but anyone 66 or younger would have registered for the first time in 1972 or later. What reason would they have had to do so as a Democrat?

[sheshe2]

10. I find the numbers troubling.

That is one HUGE gap in voting stats.

Perhaps...

LisaL

3. Not all democrats vote for a democrat.

Must we participate in ridiculous conspiracy theories?

Yet all Reps vote in massive numbers for Mitch? Huge massive numbers. It is almost like those numbers are fake.

[GulfCoast66]

7. Sorry. But that means nothing. Any southerner who came to voting age before 1980 was a democrat.

Many are not political enough to change their registration. Most of my family in the south over 50 are democrats. But almost all have voted republican since Reagan. At least for President. Some switched to Clinton.

[Renew Deal]

14. Kentucky has always had more Democrats

But a lot of them are Kim Davis types

[crimycarny]

15. What about down ballot races or initiatives?

What I find more suspicious is that Florida voted for so many progressive policies ($15 min wage, legalization of marijuana), but then voted for Trump over Biden.

[AlexSFCA]

16. it's really hard to imagine a registered dem voting for mcconnel

[torius]

18. Since they're throwing accusations at us

I think it’s a good idea to throw some back at them. Don’t let them claim the upper hand.

[Vdizzle]

21. Wrasslin a pig. We do that and we both get filthy. But the pig likes it.

[moonscape]

20. What I see is that they hate Mitch even

more than Trump.

But yeah, having grown up in the BlueDog Dem South, the registrations don’t surprise me.

[yellowdogintexas]

22. total voter registration is 3,188,564 and 2,100,000 voted

leaving 1,088,564 non voters. So it is possible that all those non voters were Democrats maybe

Just because they registered as Democrats doesn't mean they would vote that way

[C Moon]

23. This same thing happened in 2016. I recall the Jackass senator was losing, but magically won.

I don't believe Trump got 71 million votes, either.
I would guess it was 2 votes: his own..."and that district attorney out there."

[BGBD]

24. party registration

should be ignored everywhere in the south. These are "democrats" who haven't voted for one since Carter. (maybe Bill Clinton for some).

[Buckeyeblue]

25. What about the non-affilated voters?

Not everyone registered to vote has declared a party. If we are going to reconcile votes, we need to look at number registered for a county, breakdown dems, repugs, non-affils.

Kentucky isn't Georgia. Younger, left leaning people are not relocating in mass to anywhere in Kentucky. Kentucky's smart, young people end up in Atlanta, Raleigh or Charlotte if they stay in the south.

[Wanderlust988]

27. I live in Kentucky, born and raised, and most people here are Democrats

But they are conservative. They registered Democratic in order to vote in local elections cause most of the local officeholders used to be all Democratic back in the day. The Democratic primary used to be the defacto general election. So that's why there are more registered Democrats. But it's changing and Republicans will probably over take Dems in registration before too long. But anyway, the Dems here are very conservative in general so not surprising they vote for Mitch and Trump.

I live in a county of 26,000. It wasn't until about 10 years ago that we elected a Republican county executive for the first time. Nearly all the officeholders were Democratic. But the county is always red in federal elections.