Democrats Leading In Voter Registration
Party Posts Big Gains While GOP Loses Voters In Key States
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The epic nomination battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton helped put millions more Democrats on the voter rolls while Republican registration declined. Now Graham, 45, has taken three months of unpaid leave from her job at Pittsburgh's Central Blood Bank in the hope of adding to those gains before the presidential vote.
She's encouraged by the response here. "They're all feeling the crunch" of lost jobs and a sagging economy, Graham said. "But people are feeling empowered. They're feeling like, 'You know what, I hold a little bit of power in this.'"
To counter this effort, the Republicans are counting on a formidable, high-tech get-out-the-vote operation that has helped them win the past two presidential elections.
Since the last federal election in 2006, volunteers like Graham combined with the enthusiasm generated by the Obama-Clinton struggle to add more than 2 million Democrats to voter rolls in the 28 states that register voters according to party affiliation. The Republicans have lost nearly 344,000 voters in the same states.
The Democrats hope their voter registration efforts can boost Obama to victory in competitive states like Pennsylvania, Nevada and Florida and perhaps even give him a shot at winning traditional Republican states like Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.
Both Obama and his Republican rival, John McCain, are fighting for independent swing voters, and many of the new Democrats had been unaffiliated voters.
The number of unaffiliated voters dropped by nearly 900,000 since 2006. Many joined the Democratic Party to take part in the primaries and caucuses, and now they will now be targeted by an aggressive get-out-the-vote campaign.
"We feel that our supporters are more enthusiastic than we've seen in previous cycles," said Jon Carson, Obama's national field director.
The Obama campaign is taking the lead among the party organizations and labor unions that traditionally work on voter registration efforts.
Because party organizations and unions, like the Service Employees International Union to which Graham belongs, can raise unrestricted amounts of money, presidential campaigns typically rely on them to handle the bulk of voter registration drives, Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean said in an interview.
"This is the first campaign I've seen where the voter registration is done by the campaign," Dean said.
The Republicans are relying on a more traditional voter registration model, with the Republican National Committee leading the effort among state parties.
"We hope that the hard work we've done in the past will provide us with a strategic advantage," said Mike DuHaime, McCain's political director. "We will have the most technologically advanced ground operation ever."
DuHaime said the RNC is working with the state parties to register voters in every battleground state. He said there is extra emphasis on the fast-growing ones, including Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Florida and North Carolina.
He said the GOP's comprehensive voter database helps it track voters moving into competitive states.
"If you ever voted in a Republican primary and move without registering, we pick it up," DuHaime said.
Nationwide, there are about 42 million registered Democrats and about 31 million Republicans, according to statistics compiled by The Associated Press.
The Democrats have posted big gains in many competitive states, including Nevada, New Hampshire, Iowa, Colorado and Florida. They have also been targeting historically Republican southern states.
Since 2006, the Democrats have added 167,000 voters in North Carolina, while the Republicans have added 36,000. The Democrats' biggest voter registration goal is in Georgia, where the Obama campaign hopes to register 500,000 voters before the election, said Dean, who has spent the past month traveling the country on a voter registration bus tour.
"The Obama folks are serious about Georgia," Dean said. Georgia has added 337,000 voters since 2006, but the state does not identify them by party affiliation.
In Pennsylvania, the Democrats have added 375,000 voters since 2006 while the Republicans have lost 117,000.
America Votes, an umbrella organization, coordinates voter registration efforts for more than 40 groups in Pennsylvania, including unions, the NAACP and the Sierra Club.
On a recent weekday, two dozen volunteers canvas neighborhoods in five southwest Pennsylvania counties, targeting African-Americans in their teens and twenties, who tend to vote at lower rates than older voters.
Graham, the SEIU member, works the neighborhoods of Clairton, where the steel industry's decline has left more downtown storefronts boarded up than occupied.
Graham finds a potential voter at the first house she stops at. Justin Webb, a father of two, is unregistered, but tells Graham he has serious concerns about the economy.
"We need more jobs," said Webb, 28. "If we had more jobs, we would have more opportunities to better ourselves."
It takes Graham less than five minutes to register Webb as a Democrat.
Party Registration By State
Since 2006, the Democrats have added 2.1 million voters in the 28 states that registered voters by party affiliation in both 2006 and today. The Republicans have lost nearly 344,000 voters in the same states. The number of registered voters in each party, the percent change since 2006:
State Dem Change GOP Change
Ala. na na na na
Alaska 73,446 9.3% 120,611 3.7%
Ariz. 1,090,484 7.9% 1,207,993 2.7%
Ark. na na na na
Calif. 7,053,860 4.8% 5,244,394 -3.5%
Colo. 946,277 5.5% 1,024,504 -4.0%
Conn. 707,885 0.4% 408,376 -5.7%
Del. 264,167 7.3% 179,470 0.5%
D.C. 290,931 -0.2% 29,220 -5.7%
Fla. 4,389,698 4.0% 3,924,081 -0.3%
Ga. na na na na
Hawaii na na na na
Idaho na na na na
Ill. na na na na
Ind. na na na na
Iowa 713,656 12.8% 618,731 1.5%
Kan. 449,058 1.6% 741,786 -2.9%
Ky. 1,647,140 4.4% 1,043,331 3.2%
La. 1,525,915 -1.9% 722,420 1.9%
Maine 318,807 3.0% 274,189 -2.0%
Md. 1,804,106 4.1% 901,347 -0.9%
Mass. 1,476,133 0.2% 486,188 -2.6%
Mich. na na na na
Minn. na na na na
Miss. na na na na
Mo. na na na na
Mont. na na na na
Neb. 372,864 0.6% 550,581 -3.9%
Nev. 564,885 14.3% 489,396 1.3%
N.H. 264,122 19.2% 269,119 5.0%
N.J. 1,682,352 46.3% 1,030,142 15.7%
N.M. 543,615 1.0% 354,272 -1.3%
N.Y. 5,438,800 -1.3% 2,995,982 -4.3%
N.C. 2,656,706 6.7% 1,936,584 1.9%
N.D. na na na na
Ohio na na na na
Okla. 1,025,611 -1.6% 806,943 0.5%
Ore. 869,538 13.3% 676,895 -4.2%
Pa. 4,275,524 9.6% 3,184,081 -3.5%
R.I. 277,961 na 75,480 na
S.C. na na na na
S.D. 197,575 3.5% 236,232 -1.6%
Tenn. na na na na
Texas na na na na
Utah 119,759 na 581,173 na
Vt. na na na na
Va. na na na na
Wash. na na na na
W.Va. 665,234 2.5% 347,760 1.4%
Wis. na na na na
Wyo. 70,363 4.6% 155,912 -4.3%
Nation 41,776,472 5.3% 30,617,193 -1.1%
By Associated Press Writers Julie Pace and Stephen Ohlemacher
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



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See all 82 CommentsMich. na na na na
John McClone passed over the governor''s of these upper Midwest states, Romney and Pawlenty, to get a glamor queen who espoused Alaska''s secession from the USA (isn''t that treason?) and thinks that teenage girls who are raped by their uncle or older brother should be forced by the federal government to bear the child.
The people of Minnesota and of Michigan won''t soon forget the insult that McClone and the Republicans have dealt.
Mark Minnesota and Michigan Blue.
You can still mark Alaska Red.
And you''ll still be saying "President Obama" next year.
Thanks, Mcclone!
Just like McSame
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Posted by PaulO27
You''re right, it was Romney''s father who was governor of Michigan.
They''re still not going to appreciate it.
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Posted by mrjake7
God, what stone do you clime crawl out from under? Does McCain know you''re out of your cage?
"Squeaky" McCain and "Screechy" Palin aren''t it.
And, do you really want to listen to the voices on those two for the next several years? The wooden, squeaky delivery of McCain, or the glass-shattereing shrillness of Palin?
I think not.
No more. No thanks. No McCain!
First, try as best you can, to decide where you want the USA to be both domestically and internationally in 2012.
Second, strip away all of the mud, excess baggage, doodoo, etc as you can from what you have learned about Obama and McCain.
Third, after you have done the second step, decide which one of the two men is most likely to get us to where you want the USA in 2012. Vote and support that choice.
But, please vote. Too many good men/women have suffered and died to give you that right.
Posted by sun247 at 01:06 PM : Sep 06, 2008
Check the voting machines in Florida and Ohio...
Made by a company that regularly donates to Republicans
They stole the last 2 elections, they''re going for 3
Come November, its time for republicans to be junked in the trashcan of history.
They are going to have their work cut out for them.
It will be interesting to see if they can pull it off.
_____
These are very compelling numbers. One question, are pollsters able to contact these newly registered voters?
Posted by b48151
I think you are confusing Democrats with Republicans, you know, the Corporate Welfare Queens (and Kings).
Posted by shoebox119
Yes, they are. The trouble is, they don''t want to. That would expose the voter fraud lie.
Posted by shoebox119
Yes, they are. The trouble is, they don''t want to. That would expose the voter fraud lie.
They are going to have their work cut out for them.
It will be interesting to see if they can pull it off.
Know why Repubs can''t register people in middle and lower class neighborhoods?
Because if they tried, they''d be laughed right out of the neighborhood.....
Yeah he plans not to go through life not like everyone else?
He was not an executive so how can he lead people? You need at least 3 years as an intern. They want to give the presidency to a person who does not know how to lead people?
Even though The Democrats had no use for the flags, the Republicans did. The Democrats'' discarded flags were used at a McCain/Palin event in Colorado Springs.
You would think that when your standard bearer has a record of disrespecting the flag, and even replaces the American flag with the Obama logo, his campaign would be a lot more sensitive to the issue.
Liberals have proven they are the loser Americans.
Hillary please help me we cannot do it without you? Bend over a second time for us? We need someone with bbaallss to do are fighting? Joe Biden and I have no executive experience As do John Mccain and Sarah Palin.
Please Hillary Please Hillary help us so you can get it a second time.
You have lost my vote, and the votes of many others.
Read ''em and weep!
Obama ''08!
And no cheerleader bimbo who knows how to be a corrupt "bi*** with power" is going to "cut it".
Obama is the real deal, Palin is just a "flash in the pan".
Posted by tonic1111
Hahaha when he was running against Bush--you guys chose Bush as the better man--now you''re chosing the loser?
Unbelievable
1. FAILURE- past performance of Bush 7 2/3 years, GOP last 14 years!
2. FAILURE- to sign new voters up combined with people leaving the GOP!
3. FAILURE- of the classic test, are you better off today than you were before this party took power?!
Conclusion: They''ll HAVE to cheat through voting machine fraud to win! If they do that---AGAIN, I believe the public isn''t going to stand for it a third time in a row! There WILL be trouble!
Bush and the GOP will down in history as having caused the second American civil war!
Apparently they inform themselves, make their own decisions and vote their own values and beliefs.
Thanks for helping to get all those people registered to vote for Sarah Palin.
Bush and the GOP will down in history as having caused the second American civil war!
Posted by stn_sage at 03:59 PM : Sep 06, 2008
I''m not worried about Diebold this time---they have been charged with 23 incidents including a "back door" in their computer system. Fined on all 23 charges.
Posted by ragnar30066
Why would they not just register Repuklican or Independant?
A very interesting clip. Inform yourself and make the right decision.
Apparently they inform themselves, make their own decisions and vote their own values and beliefs.
Posted by ragnar30066 at 04:01 PM : Sep 06, 2008
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Some do. But that''s not how RethugliCONs have won the past two presidential elections and various senate and house seats! It has more to do, with:
1. voting machine fraud-adding votes to CON side.
2. posting flyers misinforming public when vote is.
3. CON affiliated officials shifting voting machines away fm highly Dem areas so there''s 300 people waiting to use 2 machines!
4. refusing to allow people to vote the day of the election by claiming they''re not on rolls, when they are!
5. calling up the elderly, finding out how they''re going to vote, tell them a car will pick them up just prior to poll closing, then sending no one!
6. probable bribery; the voting machines in two counties going down just prior to poll closing time in any state where the vote is close! The final count then magically favoring the THUG candidate when the Dem candidate had been leading!
There are other CON techniques but these are MY personal favorites! I think YOU get my point! :)
Please cry with Hillary? She needs our comfort!
And that''s a trend that''s going to continue as older, white America is replaced.
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