Although there are 183,102 more Pennsylvania voters, there are now 11,250 fewer voters in Centre County, according to data from the Pennsylvania Bureau of Commissions, Elections and Legislation.

Joyce McKinley, the director of elections for Centre County, said when the data was collected, Centre County had more inactive voters than other counties.

McKinley explained that the Pennsylvania Voter Registration Act (PVRA) was implemented in 1996 to remove inactive voters from the rolls. A voter is considered to be inactive if he or she misses two federal elections. If the person is inactive for five more years, he or she will be removed from the voting rolls.

"It's very difficult to know what these statistics mean. It's almost impossible to get accurate rates of registrations. I treat these numbers with complete skepticism," said Eric Plutzer, a Penn State associate professor of political science and sociology.

Plutzer said the process of how the voter registration data was collected needs to be examined. He said that unless the procedures were the same throughout the counties and didn't change from the beginning to the end of the study, he did not see how any conclusions could be made.

Jacquelyn Shaw (junior-sociology) was surprised that the number of registered voters in Centre County had decreased.

"It seems weird that [voter registration] would decrease in Centre County when the rest of the state is increasing," Shaw said.

More than half of the increase in Pennsylvania registration can be attributed to more people registering under the "other parties" category.

"A large number of new registrants are young, and young people tend to be independent," Plutzer said.

Jessica Pouchan (junior-communications) explained why she thought that more people were registering as independents.

"I think it has to do with how they're raised. People are starting to choose their own path, and they have the freedom to do so," Pouchan said.

Gregory Markus, a political science professor at the University of Michigan, said it is part of a national trend for more voters to register as independents.

"Because of the advent of media, it's easier to learn about candidates without parties. [Candidates] don't need the parties the way that they used to," Markus said. This shift can be explained by older voters leaving the political system and more new people joining, he said.

"There's a little bit of switching [for] middle-aged people, but a large part of the change is due to replacement," Markus said.

Despite the independent voter trend, Republican voter registration in Pennsylvania increased by 43,038 and the Democratic Party gained 43,666 more voters.

Garrett Sullivan (junior-marketing) was not expecting an evenly split increase of voters in the two parties.

"I [thought] it would be more [directed] to one side. I [thought] people would tend to lean to one side more drastically," Sullivan said.