Closing the Gap

Testing trends before next year's congressional elections, Pollster George Gallup last week announced some answers to a Galluping theoretical question: if you had to register today, would it be as a Democrat or Republican? To nobody's surprise, 53% of those questioned went Democratic, including 59% of those not now registered with either party. But to nobody's surprise as well, the G.O.P. had carved extensive inroads since the question last was asked in 1954. At that time Gallup found a 20-million voter spread between parties; in 1957 the difference had dropped to 12.7 million, and the gap-closing was occurring in important areas: 1) among voters not now committed to either party, and 2) in the desolidifying South, where 26% of those questioned said that they would register Republican, compared to 18% who chose the G.O.P. three years ago.

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