Democrats are continuing to outpace Republicans in voter registration tallies across the state, according to the latest numbers from the Pennsylvania Department of State.

The overall number of newly registered voters increased about 1.9 percent from November 2007 to March 30, 2008, and Democrats are continuing to benefit the most from the shift, with a 6.1 percent increase in statewide registrations. Republicans have experienced a net decrease of 1.5 percent, and independents declined by 3 percent.

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Even as voter excitement builds over the state's unusually prominent role in this year's presidential nomination contest, Democratic Party officials stressed the trend actually dates back to the early 1990s,

Some counties have seen significantly higher shifts toward the Democratic Party than others. In traditionally Republican Cumberland County, the Democrats saw a 15.9 percent increase in new registrations, closely followed by Chester County, in suburban Philadelphia, with a 15.6 percent increase in newly registered Democrats.

Other counties with overwhelmingly Democratic registration saw relatively small increases -- Allegheny County reported an increase of only 3 percent, while Philadelphia saw only a 4.7 percent increase.

Still others, like Armstrong County, which has roughly the same number of Republican and Democratic voters, saw relatively little change -- with a 1.9 percent increase for the Democrats and a 0.9 percent decrease for Republicans.

The GOP avoided declines in only eight of the state's 67 counties -- three of them in southwestern Pennsylvania. Beaver County showed a 0.2 percent increase in Republican registration since November, Washington County showed a 0.6 percent increase and Westmoreland County showed a 0.2 percent increase.

It's not clear how historic these numbers actually are. Mark Wolosik, director of Allegheny County's Elections Division, said that the county saw a gain of nearly 100,000 voters overall between the 1984 presidential primary and the general election, but he's not certain if the same kinds of numbers will be counted in this pre-primary season, once all the voter registration totals are in.

Statewide, 45,977 people switched to the Democratic Party, according to numbers tallied during the week of March 24 -- which was the deadline for registering to vote in Pennsylvania. In contrast, 1,808 voters registered as Republicans during that same period, according to Leslie Amoros, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of State.

Elections bureaus continued to sift last week through hundreds of thousands of new registrations, address changes and party registration changes. Final vote totals may not be ready for another one to two weeks, Ms. Amoros said.

While Republicans no longer have a lock on voters in what was once a GOP stronghold in Delaware County in suburban Philadelphia, for example, the surge in Democratic registration "is nothing new," said Tom Campisi, first vice chair of that county's Democratic Party. Currently, Democrats number about 150,000 compared to Republicans at 191,000. Ten years ago the GOP edge was closer to 2 to 1.

"It continues a 10-year trend in the county of voters leaving the Republican party and joining the Democratic Party, and it's a very good barometer of future voting patterns in Delaware County at all levels of the ballot."

Montgomery County, another longtime "swing" district, saw modest but not eye-popping gains for the Democrats, with a 7.5 percent increase.

In Bucks County, the fourth of the crucial "collar counties" around Philadelphia, Democrats increased their vote totals by 8.3 percent, said Neil Samuels, who said he expects that number to tighten further once all the votes are counted.

Whether this will help Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama is anyone's guess.

Mr. Samuels, an Obama supporter who spent 20 years as a Republican before switching a decade ago, thinks his candidate will ultimately benefit the most.

"I tend to agree with the conventional analysis that the older guard is more loyal to the Clintons, while a lot of the new blood are interested in upsetting the status quo and they tend to be for Obama," he said.