Orange County sees flood of new voters with online registration

(FOX 11) - In Orange County, the number of people registering to vote online has surged since the beginning of the year.

Orange County Registrar of Voters, Neal Kelley, was one of the early supporters of online registration in the state. Kelley said that between January 1 and the May 23 registration deadline, about 25,000 people signed up online in time to vote in the June 7 California primary.

Approximately 17,000 of those new voters are Democrats and 8,000 are Republicans. Those are significant numbers for a county that used to be a Republican-stronghold in the state.

Republican County Chairman Fred Whitaker says Democrats in the county embraced online registration early, but the Republicans now have robust support for the process.

Democratic County Chairman Henry Vandermeir credits the online voting with shifting party preference in a number of cities, including Irvine, which now has more Democratic voters than Republican voters.

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