Record N.C. voter rolls might help Dems

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CORRECTION

A front-page article in Wednesday's edition incorrectly said North Carolina's voter rolls had swollen this year by 600,000. Although there are 600,000 new voters, the net increase in registered voters is about 400,000. About 200,000 voters were removed from the rolls because they moved, died or committed a felony.

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Spurred by heavy registration in big urban counties -- particularly among young voters and black people -- North Carolina's voter rolls have swelled by more than 600,000 this year to a record 6 million.

"Voter registration has eclipsed all records, no doubt about it," said state elections director Gary Bartlett.

The apparent beneficiaries: Democrats. Analysts say the changes have helped Democrat Barack Obama make the state an unexpected presidential battleground.

"Clearly, the advantage goes to Obama," said Ferrel Guillory, director of the Program on Public Life at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Democrats have an overall edge in registration in this state: 2.7 million to 2 million Republicans. But Republican John McCain's campaign says it's not worried; the state hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1976.

While North Carolina's registration surge in part reflects the state's growth, the Obama campaign has mounted aggressive registration efforts.

Of North Carolina's 603,000 new voters this year, 48 percent are Democrats and 21 percent Republicans. Nearly a third are independents. By comparison, in 2004 Democrats made up 39 percent of new voters and Republicans, 34 percent.

Among the trends:

* Black people, who make up about 22 percent of the state's population, account for more than 30 percent of new voters.

* Five urban counties -- Durham, Wake, Mecklenburg, Forsyth and Guilford -- account for more than a third of all new registrations. Almost half of the new black voters -- and four in 10 new Democrats -- come from those counties.

* Nearly 210,000 new voters are ages 18 to 24. Only one in five registered Republican.

Elections officials are preparing for record turnout. The more people who vote early, the easier it will be to accommodate huge crowds on Election Day, said Gary Sims, deputy director of the Wake County Board of Elections.

"This will be the largest election in the history of voting, not just for Wake County, but North Carolina and the United States," Sims said.

New registrations appear to be one reason Obama has moved into a virtual tie with McCain in recent statewide polls.

Republicans say new numbers won't change the outcome.

"Senator McCain's appeal to independents and Democrats, especially the conservative Demo-crats in the southeast part of the state, will ensure North Carolina stays red on November Fourth," said McCain spokesman Mario Diaz.

Republican strategist Carter Wrenn of Raleigh says what worries him aren't the registration numbers themselves.

"If people are registering at that rate for the Democrats, you've got to feel that the swing voters and independent voters are probably tending toward the Democrats too," he said. "That's doggone frightening."