(Radio Iowa) – The latest voter registration data suggests thousands of Iowans switched their party registration to Republican so they could participate in last month’s Iowa Caucuses. Voter data from the Iowa Secretary of State’s office shows there were about 16-thousand more registered Republicans in Iowa on February 1st than there were on January 1st.

The Iowa Republican Party Caucuses were held January 15th. The data suggests about 55-hundred were Democrats and six-thousand independents switched their party registration to Republicans in order to participate in the caucuses that night.

During the month of January, about 48-hundred Iowans registered as Republicans for the first time.