Survey: More than 3.4 million new voters
By Mike Baker
Associated Press
Monday, May 5, 2008
Overall, the AP found that more than one in 66 adult Americans signed up
to vote in just the first three months of the year.
And in the 20 states that were able to provide comparable data, new
registrations have soared about 65 percent from the same three months in
the 2004.
"This could change the face of American politics for decades to come,"
said Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, predicting permanent
gains for her party.
While detailed data are available from only a handful of states,
registration seems to be up particularly strongly for blacks and women.
Among the new voters in North Carolina is Shy Ector, 25, of Durham. She
favored Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry while a student at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill four years ago, but never actually took
the time to make sure she was registered to vote. Barack Obama's
candidacy was enough to make sure she did this year, she said.
"I was like 'Oh, now this is a reason to vote. This is different,"'
Ector said. "I was inspired and I was excited."
Consider Pennsylvania and North Carolina -- where the primary elections
hadn't been expected to matter because they occurred so late in the
nominating process.
New voter registrations favored Democrats in North Carolina, which holds
its primary Tuesday. In the first three months of the year, the number
of new Democratic registrants nearly tripled -- to 74,590 -- from those
during the same period of 2004.
More than 49,558 unaffiliated voters signed up in the Tar Heel state,
compared with just 16,858 in the first three months of 2004. The
Democratic primary was the obvious draw, with 85 percent of unaffiliated
voters who cast early ballots doing so on that ticket.
Cherie Poucher, director of elections in Wake County, home of the state
capital of Raleigh, said registrations among the parties have
historically kept pace with each other -- until this year. In the two
weeks before the April 11 registration deadline, she said, the Democrats
gained about 8,000 voters in Wake County while the GOP lost several
hundred.
"We have never seen something like that before," Poucher said.
In Pennsylvania, where Clinton's victory in the April 22 primary kept
her campaign alive, there were 40,000 more Republicans than Democrats in
Bucks County in April 2004.
Among the new registrants in the first three months of this year, 6,537
signed up as Democrats while 2,200 did so as members of the GOP in the
county north of Philadelphia. And 12,554 filed applications to switch to
the Democratic Party. By the beginning of April, Bucks had become a
Democratic county by a margin of nearly 4,000 registered voters.
"After January, they were just coming," said John Cordisco, the county's
Democratic chairman.
Cordisco said party leaders had initially set a goal of turning the
county blue by 2011. Then came the extended primary battle that gave
Pennsylvania an im****tant role. And while Clinton won Bucks County by a
margin of 25 percentage points, accounts suggest that many of the new
registrants are black voters inspired by Obama.
The overall figures on new registrations were compiled by the AP in a
survey of election officials nationwide. Eight states and the District
of Columbia were unable to provide statistics, meaning the total number
of voters who registered between roughly Jan. 1 and March 31 almost
certainly exceeds 3.5 million. One of the eight, North Dakota, does not
require voters to register.
The numbers even seem to be benefiting Democrats in states that
generally lean Republican. In Wyoming, where registered Republicans
still outnumber Democrats by more than 2-to-1, Democratic registrations
in the first three months of the year surpassed those for the GOP. Ditto
in West Virginia, Iowa, Louisiana and North Carolina -- all states won
by President Bush in 2004. There could be more: Only 10 states had
figures on new voter registrations by party.
Four states provided information about the race of registrants in both
2004 and 2008: Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana and North Carolina. And in
each, there was a surge in the registration of black voters. In North
Carolina, more than 45,000 blacks signed up to vote in the first three
months of 2008, compared with just over 11,000 in the first three months
of 2004.
There also was a fourfold rise in black voter registrations in Alabama,
while Louisiana and Tennessee saw increases of 64 and 17 percent.
the onslaught of registrations has overwhelmed election organizers,
resulting in a mix of both excitement and anxiety as they prepare to
count ballots cast by millions of new registrants.
In Indiana, which also votes Tuesday, a flood of recent voter
applications slowed election systems to a crawl and forced some counties
to keep staff working around-the-clock to process the backlog.
In April alone, Hoosier election staffs processed 130,000 new or updated
voter registrations. Many more people cast ballots in early voting.
"Those numbers completely obliterate any numbers from 2004," said
Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita. For the primary, he said, "I've
been pulling my staff in for war-game meetings, playing out every
scenario. They're almost paramilitary tactics in terms of strategy."
David Woodard, a professor of political science at Clemson University
who has advised Republican candidates, acknowledged the GOP is concerned
about what appears to be a movement to voters to the Democratic Party
attracted by Obama.
Since this article was written, Obama has won the Democratic nomination,
and additional new black and brown registrations has soared, even more
dramatically than during the primary season. While white voters seem to
be particularly disinerested in either candidate, black voters are
supercharged, and the new voter registrations reflect it.
What will the Republicans do, if they lose La, Ms, N.C, S.C, and Al, due
to white voter apatahy and black voter excitement? There is also an
anti-Bush sentiment in the white community here, and a desire for change
as there was 8 years ago after Clinton. Change for change sake alone,
and with nothing reallyl separating McCain from Obama, the dems seem to
me to be well in the drivers seat. I live in a state where 1/3 of the
population is black. I see it daily (the black mobilization), in the
news, and on the street. I haven't seen anything like this in Ms, ever
before. It reminds me of the youth revolution in the 60s. Ignore it at
your peril.
June 15, 2008
A Democratic voter registration drive in largely black neighborhoods of
Louisiana has swamped the state’s voter registrar offices, forcing them
to hire new staff members and work 12-hour days to process thousands of
applications.
You can find articles like this in any state with significant black
populations.
This election is not business as usual. There is a revolution taking
place in black communities. They are becoming political activists.
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