Yesterday, I wrote about some of the newest figures from the Secretary of State’s Office showing Democratic voter registration at 40 percent, the lowest level in decades.

Today, a look at some of the Republican registration figures.

Republicans now represent 34 percent (33.62%) of all voters in West Virginia. That is the highest percentage since the early 1970’s.

Republican registration has trailed the Democrats for generations in West Virginia. One of the GOP’s high points in the last 75 years came in 1956.

That year, Republican registration reached 38 percent as West Virginia voters helped re-elect Republican President Dwight Eisenhower and chose Republican Cecil Underwood over Democrat Robert Mollohan for Governor.

But it was a steady decline after that until the 2000 election, when West Virginia voters helped send George W. Bush to the White House. Since then, Republicans have made significant inroads.

As voter registration has increased over the last 20 years—from 1,060,349 in 2000 to 1,225,201 today—Republicans have gained in numbers, while Democrats have declined.

In 2000, Republican voters made up 29 percent of the electorate. That equaled 310,000 voters. Percentage-wise, that has gradually risen to 34 percent. However, the number of registered Republicans has shot up by over 100,000, to 411,872.

Today, Republican registration trails Democrats by just 76,000 voters. Twenty five years ago, Democrats had a numerical advantage of a whopping 349,000 voters.

The Republican registration strength is particularly evident just since the last election. Over the last four years, county clerks have done a remarkable job clearing the voter registration rolls of inactive voters.

As I pointed out in yesterday’s commentary, that hit Democrats particularly hard. They lost 93,000 registrations, while gaining just 9,600 new voters for a net loss of 83,000 voters.

Republicans lost over 51,000 voters when the rolls were updated. However, the GOP added nearly 65,000 new voters for a net gain of 13,000. The Democrat losses and the Republican gains are a net swing of 96,000 voters, and that’s a lot in a small state.

Tomorrow, a look at how the independent voter numbers have changed.