THOSE WERE THE DAYS

Occasionally, the Lakeland Ledger will fill some space with some headlines or brief excerpts from stories published this week in years gone by. Here's one that will make you wish for "the old days", from November 14, 1967:

A total 116 Polk County voters switched their political allegiance during the past year, according to County Supervisor of Registration Blanche Work.

Of the overall number, 84 Democrats re-registered as Republicans and one Independent registered Republican.

Twenty-five Republicans changed over to the Democratic side, as did six Independents.

The switches in allegiance had little impact on the ratio of Democrats to Republicans. Registered Democrats still outnumber the GOP in Polk by about seven to one.

There are 74,297 Democrats and 10,631 Republicans registered.

Compare that to today's figures from the SOE's office as of November 2:

123,415 Democrats, 114,562 Republicans, 8902 Other Parties, and 46,232 Unknown (consider Independents).