This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Many Republicans may not be enamored with Donald Trump, and Bernie Sanders fans may not especially like Hillary Clinton. But in Utah, few seem to be dumping their party membership because of unease over the presidential nominees.

Both parties have seen significant gains in registered voters this year — including during the months since Trump and Clinton became the presumptive nominees. The candidates finished a distant third and second, respectively, in Utah caucuses.

Instead of Utah voters using easy online options at the website vote.utah.gov to shed their party affiliation, what has been trending downward is the number of unaffiliated voters, according to weekly registration data tracked by the office of Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, the state's chief elections officer.

"People still hold to the ideals of their party even if they may not support the individual candidates on the ballot," said Utah Democratic Party Chairman Peter Corroon.

"The unifying effect is that people are just fed up," said Utah Republican Party Chairman James Evans. "So they are getting involved. And the most logical thing to do would be to get involved in a political party to make sure your voice is heard. That's what I think you are seeing."

So far this year, Utah Republicans gained 62,922 new registered voters — roughly the population of Tooele County. And 38,060 of them joined since the presidential caucus here in March.

Officials say many of those later registrants likely joined the GOP to participate in its June state primary — limited to registered Republicans — which included high-profile contests for governor, Congress and the Legislature. But the party has continued to gain voters every week since then, too, with Trump at the top of the ticket.

Democrats gained 25,078 new registrants so far this year, about the population of Sanpete County. Since the presidential caucus, after which Clinton had nearly insurmountable leads nationally, the party added 10,114 of those new voters.

Meanwhile, the number of unaffiliated voters in Utah dropped by 32,636 this year, with 26,941 of those switching instead to a party after the presidential caucuses. The number of unaffiliated voters has decreased every week this year.

Mark Thomas, director of state elections for Cox, said party registration starts to boom every two years just before party caucuses and conventions. After elections, "they slowly decline until they go up again in two years."

Evans and Corroon say excitement over the presidential race led to many early registrations by people who wanted to vote in Utah's presidential caucuses. After that, officials said, the state and local primary elections in June also likely helped draw more party registrants.

"We had high interest from both sides. The Democratic Party had its first statewide primary since 1992," Thomas said, referring to a U.S. Senate contest. "Republicans had the big governor's primary that had both sides out trying to draw supporters and register them. I think that had an effect."

All of the officials said Republicans tend to draw more registrations in part because it has a "closed" primary, meaning only registered Republicans may participate. Democrats have an "open" primary not limited just to its registered voters.

Corroon complained that before the primary, "county clerks were sending out notices to unaffiliated voters asking them which ballot they wanted, and telling them that if they choose Republican, they would automatically register you as Republican. That may have been a big part" of GOP gains.

Republicans have a huge lead in total registrations in the state. The GOP currently has 702,858 registered voters, or 47.4 percent of the total. Unaffiliated voters are next highest with 584,633, or 39.6 percent of the total. Democrats have 160,969 registered voters, or 10.9 percent.

The Independent American Party has 14,120 registered voters; the Libertarian Party, 9,777; and the Constitution Party, 4,545.