Independents make up largest share of new voters

Voter registration in Arizona has spiked, adding more than 300,000 people to the rolls in the last two years.

The increase indicates that Arizona’s political landscape is drawing the public’s interest, but many are also registering as independents, which could mean that disaffection with the established parties lingers.

Figures from the Secretary of State’s office released Aug. 17 showed that voter registration now stands at 3.1 million.

Of that number, independents comprise about 31 percent of the voting population.

In fact, independents have grown by almost 200,000 in two years, about twice the number of new Republicans and Democrats combined.

Since they can vote in the primary, independents could spell the difference in tightly contested races in the election this month. The Libertarian primary, however, is closed to independents because of a court order.

Arizona had about 2.7 million voters during roughly the same period two years ago.

The recent spike is apparent in the last few months.

In fact, more than 36,000 residents have decided to register as voters since the May 18 special election on the 1-cent sales tax.

“These growing figures are a positive sign that Arizona voters are paying attention this political season,” Secretary of State Ken Bennett said in a news release.

Of the recognized political parties, the Arizona Republican Party registered the biggest jump between the special election and the August report. It added about 10,600 new voters.

Meanwhile, the Arizona Democratic Party’s registration fell by more than 500 during the same period.

But compared to two years ago, Democrats actually gained by about 43,000 voters.

Still, Republicans outpaced Democrats, adding nearly 58,000 voters during the same period.

With roughly 1,120,000 voters, Republicans currently comprise 36 percent of the voting population, down by almost 2 percentage points compared to two years ago.

Democrats’ share also fell by about 2 percentage points; the party now has more than 1 million voters.

In the same period, independents’ share of the voting population grew by 3.6 percentage points.