In the 2015 election, Republicans managed to win major local races – including for county executive, state Supreme Court and county legislature.

However, in Monroe County, voter registration says they shouldn’t be winning.

Republican candidates have much larger support in western New York than they do downstate.

In many neighboring counties, there are more registered Republicans than Democrats, but in Monroe County, things are different. So, how exactly do they win here?

“I believe the voters feel comfortable with Republican candidates handling the financial aspect of a town let’s say, or the county for that matter,” said Bill Reilich. “17 of the 19 towns are under Republican control.”

Whatever reason voters choose for selecting Republicans in Monroe County, the sheer numbers show it’s an uphill battle for GOP candidates to win.

Livingston, Ontario, Wayne, Orleans and Genesee have thousands more registered republican voters than Democrats.

But in Monroe County, it’s just the opposite, with almost 60,000 more Democrats registered than Republicans.

“There’s a difference between enrolling to be a registered voter and showing up to vote,” Reilich said. “It’s all about your priorities, depending upon where you are in life. I think we have more Republican voters show up to the polls, historically, than the Democrats do.”

Reilich says the significantly younger Democratic voters often don’t vote, aand help republicans maintain local offices – and turn out is the name of the game.

BILL REILICH

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“You go downtown, you ask for the form, whatever process you go through – there’s a reason you’re making that decision. You’re going to vote on Election Day,” Reilich said. “If you go to the DMV and it’s motor voter and they say ‘oh ok it’s just like we’ll add that on but I’m not really driven to that,’ you’re not going to get the same turnout.”

“The biggest issue that we have locally is turnout,” said Jamie Romeo. “It’s a presidential year, so we know turnout will be higher – significantly higher – than last year when we had some very important open seat elections, but overall turnout for that election was under 30 percent.”

Given the state of the presidential race and voter distrust in the candidates, both parties say the more local races are really going to come down to who better mobilizes their voter base on Election Day.

Here’s a breakdown of the raw numbers by county:

Genesee

Republicans: 16,169

Democrats: 9,563

6,606 more Republicans

Livingston

Republicans: 17,258

Democrats: 10,788

6,470 more Republicans

Monroe

Republicans: 133,159

Democrats: 190,297

57,138 more Democrats

Ontario

Republicans: 26,998

Democrats: 20,272

6,726 more Republicans

Orleans

Republicans: 11,122

Democrats: 5,848

5,274 more Republicans

Wayne