A new report on voter registration trends finds that Democrat voter registration is down by more than 800,000 since 2008 in eight key battleground states.

GOP registration has also declined -- but by only 79,000, a tenth of the Democrats’ losses.

Meanwhile, registered independents are on the rise, increasing their numbers in those states by nearly half-a-million.

The analysis, conducted by centrist Democrat think tank Third Way and appearing first in POLITICO, points to the critical role independent voters will play in determining the presidential outcome in some of the most competitive states on the 2012 map -- Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

The biggest independent gains came in North Carolina, the site of the Democrat National Convention this year and a state that was decided by less 15,000 votes in 2008. While both major parties lost ground there in the four years since then, Democrats have been especially hard hit: Registration fell by 116,662 (–4.1%), compared to a GOP decline of 13,017 (­­­-0.7%).

The real story, however, is the spike in independent voter registration. The number of independents grew by 207,173 (14.4%), meaning they now compose a quarter of North Carolina’s registered voters. In the state’s two largest counties, Charlotte’s Mecklenberg County and Raleigh’s Wake County, independent registration increased by nearly 11% and 17%, respectively, since 2008.

Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico have also posted double-digit%age gains in the number of independent voters since the last presidential election.

Florida’s Democrat voter erosion outpaced North Carolina, with Democrat registration declining by 235,000 (–4.9%). The number of Republicans essentially remained static with a gain of 19,000 voters (0.5%). Independents, on the other hand, grew by 8.2%.

What’s most interesting about the Florida data is where the independents’ growth is taking place -- among Hispanics. The state has seen a surge in the%age of Hispanic voters over the past four years -- 14.4% -- and, according to the Third Way report, “nearly as many Hispanic voters have registered as independents as have registered as Democrats or Republicans combined.”

Florida is one of 6 of the 8 states -- the others are Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina and Pennsylvania -- where independent registration outpaced both Democrat and Republican registration since 2008.

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Editor's Note: If you view any percentage of exodus from the political parties as a condemnation of the parties performance, these facts should send a message to the Democrats that rank-and-file Democrat voters are rejecting the Progressive Movement's takeover of their party.


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