Apr 21, 2016 1 min read

HARRISBURG (AP) – Final statistics from Pennsylvania elections officials show that nearly 165,000 voters switched their registration this year. The biggest amount was Democrats switching registration to Republican.

The state’s figures became final this week, when counties finished forwarding their registration records. That amounts to 2 percent of all registered voters in Pennsylvania.

About 92,000 switched to Republican. More than 61,000 of those were Democrats. More than 63,000 switched to the Democratic Party. About 43,000 of those were Republicans.

The rest joined a third party or became unaffiliated.

Many switchers reported wanting to vote in Pennsylvania’s closed presidential primary elections Tuesday. This primary election is the first one in which registrations could be switched online.

Republican registration is up 5.5 percent over a year ago to 3.1 million. Democratic registration is up 2.5 percent to almost 4.1 million.