Posted on 10/04/2004 2:08:00 PM PDT by churchillbuff
Americans are registering to vote in record numbers ahead of the November 2 election, a report said.
Monday is the deadline for registering to vote in some of the crucial swing states -- Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Florida -- as well as 12 other states, the The New York Times said.
Voter registration is a local affair in the United States, conducted with different rules and deadlines in cities and counties across the country. Voters do not need to re-register unless they have moved.
So while it is impossible to tally the number of new voters nationwide, or to predict whether they will actually vote, something is clearly afoot this year, as the United States wages a messy war in Iraq (news - web sites), after the worst terror attacks in US history and the vote recount fiasco four years ago.
"Everything we're seeing is that there has been a tremendous increase in voter registration," Kay Maxwell of the League of Women Voters told the Times.
"In the past, we've been enthused about what appeared to be a large number of new voters, but this does seem to be at an entirely different level."
Election officials around the country are hiring temporary workers, adding equipment and working around the clock to process a flood of registration cards, the report said.
Said an election official in the midwestern city of St. Louis, Missouri: "We are moving toward having the largest number of registered voters in the history of St. Louis County."
In Tallahassee, Florida, epicenter of the 2000 vote recount, the number of registrations is up 20 percent since the presidential primary in March.
In Cleveland, Ohio, a wave of 230,000 new registrations is more than double the number recorded ahead of the last presidential election.
The rate of new registrations is triple what it was in 2000 in the southwestern city of Las Vegas.
Election officials say nonpartisan community groups and Democratic activist groups are mostly behind the registration push, and that huge gains are being made in low-income and minority areas. The pace is slower in rural areas and non-swing states.
The Times reported last week that Democrats had far outpaced Republicans in efforts to register new voters in two key US states, after conducting county-by-county analysis of registration data in Ohio and Florida.
This grass-roots accomplishment could clinch the presidential race if the effort bears out nationwide and if the new voters go to the polls on November 2.
You can set a voter registration booth outside of a beer tent at a concert, but you can't put the voting booths there. Most of these newly registered voters will not vote, just as they've always not done.
Well in a couple polls I've seen folks musing over the fact that Bush has more of a lead with RV than LV.
In fact, I think the Pew poll today showed that.
Did you hear the radio ad Hannity ran on H&C that was used to scare black voters? It's getting out of hand.
I reregistered just the other day thanks to a Dem campaign worker who was registering people at a bus stop. It felt a little subversive.
No, but 5 minute after the polls close, some democratic hack is going to make sure each of these new voters on the rolls vote for Kerry.
You can bank on it, and nobody will do squat.
Veterans get out there and Vote to support Bush in this election. Kerry is a public political candidate who has publicly made comments that conflict with our interests at hand in this war, which in turn hurt our own troops morales, and only heightens support for the enemy. How can anyone vote for this man!? He may not agree with a war, but you JUST DON'T go out and publicly undermine our efforts there in the middle of it when you are a public figure running for office!!!
I hope so, I'm tired of this crap anyway.
the rnc better get on the ball in states like oh, fl and pa
make sure there's no funny business going on
pretty sure we have nothing to worry about but it would feel so much better if someone like hannity or anyone could ask someone in the bush administration about it and what their response is
put my mind at ease
Said an election official in the midwestern city of St. Louis, Missouri: "We are moving toward having the largest number of registered voters in the history of St. Louis County."
Considering what happened in 2000 in Missouri, this is VERY worrisome!
Yes. I assume you know I was being sarcastic?
Don't worry, Jimmuh Carter and the UN are going to make sure this election is done fairly. < sarcasm >
"What are the chances of these people voting anyway. Most of them are probably dead anyway."
If they don't I'm sure someone will either show up at their door and drag them in or more likely vote for them. These groups also fight to outlaw requiring an ID to vote, I wonder why ?
no. you should put a /<sarcasm tag if you are trying to be sarcastic. Still don't understand why you said Yahoo instead of AFP though? Yahoo isn't a bastion of any type of reporting fair or not.
It's not the actual dead people who worry me.
It's the Democrat hacks who are using those dead peoples' names to vote illegally.
That's what worries me most.
If Bush wins, I expect to see some very decisive moves to neutralize the Islamic and illegal immigration threats
If Kerry is elected, we will see our country drift further towards moral and financial bankrupt.
Soros' millions at work :(
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