BOSTON (AP) — Most Massachusetts voters are continuing to shun political party labels.
More than 53 percent of the state’s 4.3 million registered voters are independent, having decided not to enroll as a Democrat or Republican.
According to numbers released by the state secretary’s office Tuesday, a little more than 35 percent of voters are registered as Democrats while fewer than 11 percent are registered Republicans.
Suffolk County, which includes Boston, continues to be the most heavily Democratic county, with more than 53 percent of voters registered Democrats.
Barnstable County has the highest concentration of Republicans, who make up nearly 16 percent of registered voters.
Middlesex, the state’s most populous county with 970,000 voters, has more than 36 percent Democratic voters and fewer than 10 percent Republican.
According to data provided by Westfield City Clerk Karen Fanion, the makeup of the city’s voters mirrors the state averages and boasts an identical percentage of unenrolled voters, wth 53 percent of registered Westfield voters declining to enroll as Democrats, Republicans or members of another party.
Democrats still make up a majority of Westfield’s voting block, with 6,588 of the city’s 24,176 registered voters, roughly 27 percent.
The city also has a larger percentage of registered Republicans than the rest of the state, with 4,476 – almost 19 percent – of Westfield voters registered to the GOP.
Fanion said she has seen more voters eschew the two major political parties over her tenure as clerk.
While she said she can’t explain what has caused these defections over the years. Data from her office listed 22 other parties that have registered residents in Westfield, accounting for 162 residents, but that amounts to little over half of one percent of city voters.
Of those 162 residents, 85 are registered with the Libertarian Party, while 53 are registered to the Green Rainbow Party.
According to Brian McNiff, a spokesman for Secretary of State William F. Galvin, there are almost 22,000 voters in the Commonwealth registered to such “designations” as the Libertarian, Green Rainbow and United Independent Party, parties that, due to their small enrollment numbers, cannot hold primary elections until they have earned at least 3 percent of the vote in a statewide election.
The presence of Newton’s Evan Falchuk, a candidate for governor running for the United Independent Party, has shaken things up for some voters who were once registered as independents and never switched over to “unenrolled” voters when the state changed the language years ago.
“Unenrolled is a legal, statutory term to define the 53 percent of voters who aren’t registered with a political party or designations,” said McNiff. “If Falchuk gets more than 3 percent, in two years, they (United Independent Party) can form a state committee and run candidates in a primary.”
That’s good news if you are one of the supporters of Falchuk who is registered “Independent”, but what if you are one of those voters who was “independent” of any party and merely slipped through the cracks when the state switched the language over to “unenrolled”?
“It’s one of the reasons, every time we approach an election or primary, 20 days out is the cutoff for registration. This is the time to register with a party or to change a registration,” said McNiff. “If you signed up as independent (and not unenrolled), you’d find out when you go down to vote.”
According to Southwick Town Clark Michelle Hill, unenrolled voters still make up almost 55 percent of registered voters, with Republicans making up almost 23 percent of the town’s three wards and Democrats 21 percent.
Only 41 of the 6,474 registered voters in Southwick are registered to designations, with 17 registered Libertarians and 14 members of the Green Rainbow Party.
Election Day is tomorrow.
