Registrar reports higher number of registrations

A high number of new voters poured through the doors of the Orange County Registrar of Voters’ office Monday night to register for the upcoming election.

Monday was the last day to register for the Nov. 4 election, and the office stayed open until midnight to accommodate the last-minute rush.

Although final counts of newly registered voters won’t be available for a few days, registrar spokesman Brett Rowley estimates that the total was in the thousands. “I would say what happened after 5 p.m. was pretty extraordinary,” Rowley said.

Orange County has about 1.5 million registered voters, and as of the last official tallies in September, there are about 200,000 more Republicans than Democrats, but recent trends show a slight increase in the amount of registered Democrats and a decrease in the amount of registered Republicans.

— Alan Blank