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JOHNSTOWN Area elections officials say registered voters switch parties on a regular basis. But with the recent contentious presidential election, and divided political loyalties, many people in both Fulton and Montgomery counties have switched parties in noticeable numbers.
An analysis of election data finds it hard to discern why people switched, but in Fulton County, the big winner has been the Republican Party.
After the Nov. 3 presidential election, New York state did what might be referred to as a “purge” of some of the smaller parties. Because not enough people voted from those parties, the state told boards of elections to contact people in those parties and inform then that they could switch to another party, but they couldn’t vote in a future primary for the current party they were in. In Montgomery County, letters had to be sent out to about 3,000 voters in that category. Fulton County sent out 1,928 letters to registered voters in smalle