Democrat Participation in WVGOP Conventions Apparent

A very interesting thing seems to have happened to the Republican Party on our way to the 5 February 2008 State GOP Convention in Charleston. We borrowed a bunch of DEMOCRATS! It appears, at least in Wood County that between 120 and 200 of our local Democrats changed their registration to Republican by the 30 November deadline to be eligible to vote in our county GOP conventions or online, then most switched back in time to vote again in the upcoming 13 May Primary on a Democrat ballot.

On 21 September of last year we had steadily grown to 21597 Republicans, by 4 January that number shot up to 21694, enough to overtake the Democrats by 30. However, today we have gone back to 21586, 11 voters shy of our 21 September number and the Democrats have regained the lead with 21784, a margin of 198.

I have requested a detailed run from voter registration of everyone who has changed their voter registration from D to R within the last year, surprisingly some 1380 names. It will be interesting to see who changed and when, what impact they had if any in our Convention process and where they are in our party today, if at all.