More than 33,000 persons registered to the Democratic and Republican parties in Carbon County are eligible to vote in the Primary Election on Tuesday, May 18, according to the official registration totals in the county's election office. The registration period is now over for the upcoming election.

Officially, 33,459 persons can cast their ballots, including 19,420 Democrats and 14,039 Republicans. The Democrats' 5,381-voter advantage is down 40 from the lead the party had in November.During the most recent registration period, the Republicans increased their registration total by 56 voters and surpassed 14,000 voters for the first time. The Democrats registered 16 new voters in the same period.While the Democrats (50.9%) and GOP (36.8%) make up for 87.7 percent of the county's registered voters, there are 4,719 persons (12.4%) who have other party affiliations.Voters will have choices in six races that determine who will represent the county in federal and state capacities. On the Democratic side, there are contested races for U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives (11th District), as well as state offices of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Pa. House of Representatiuves (122nd District) and Pa. Senate (14th District). The Republicans have contested races for four of the six positions, except the U.S. House and Pa. Senate seats, where the party has only one candidate.Here are the candidates:U.S. Senate - Democrats - Arlen Specter and Joe Sestak; Republicans - Pat Toomey and Peg Luksik.Pa. Governor - Democrats - Dan Onorato, Jack Wagner, Anthony Williams and Joe Hoeffel; Republicans - Tom Corbett and Samuel Rohrer.Pa. Lieutenant Governor - Democrats - Doris A. Smith-Ribner, H. Scott Conklin and Jonathan A. Saidel; Republicans - Steve Johnson, Jean Craige Pepper, Russ Diamond, Chet Beiler, Jim Cawley, Billy McCue, John Kennedy, Stephen A. Urban and Daryl Metcalfe.U.S. Congress, 11th District - Democrats - Paul E. Kanjorski, Corey D. O'Brien and Brian Kelly; Republican - Lou Barletta.Pa. House, 122nd District - Democrats - John J. Wieczorek, Robert Frycklund, Bruce A. Nalesnik, Justin Yaich and Jeffrey S. Bobish; Republicans - Todd D. Koller and Doyle Heffley.Pa. Senate, 14th District - Democrats - Tom Leighton and John T. Yudichak; Republican - Stephen A. Urban.The official breakdown of party registrations is as follows:Democrats, 19,420; Republicans, 14,039; no affiliation, 1,999; non-partisan, 1,461; Independent, 688; Libertarian, 192; no party, 168; Green, 76; other, 30; Constitutional, 26; Independence, 13; Conservative, 11; Reform, 8; none, 7; Liberal, 6; Patriot, 5; Constitution, 5; Consumer's, 3; Socialist, 3; Anarchist, 2; undecided, 2; American, 1; Atheist, 1; Bull Moose, 1; Halloween, 1; Independent Democrat, 1; Individual, 1; Labor, 1; Libertarian, 1; neutral, 1; Phreak the 4th, 1; Right to Life, 1; and unknown, 1.