Home  News Local News Huge increase in voter registrations
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Huge increase in voter registrations |
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Written by Dr. Garth A. Rose
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Sunday, 12 October 2008 |
Monday hundreds of procrastinating South Florida citizens rushed to ensure they were registered to vote in November’s general elections. Crowds of people were seen at various Broward county malls, where registration sites were set up, attempting to register and although the offices of the Broward Supervisor of Elections was open until 8:00 p.m. to facilitate last minute registrants, people still turned up late and missed the deadline.
Shenika Perry was devastated when she came ready to register and found that it was too late. “Oh my Lord! Oh my Lord” she wailed. “I couldn’t get a ride earlier, and know I am late. I really wanted to vote badly.”
The rush of late registrants was very heavy in Miami Dade, where an employee at that county’s supervisor of elections office said she had never seen such a rush in the almost 30 years she has been working there. “People are taking this election very serious this year,” Lourdes Villiers, the employee said.
In Palm Beach County reports are that there were hundreds of new registrants with lines beginning to form well before the Supervisor of Elections Offices in West Palm Beach opened at 8:30 a.m. Spokeswoman, Kathy Adams said there was a constant flow all day and she had never seen anything like that.
Although an accurate account of how many voters registered in Florida by the October 6 deadline is not available, it is estimated that there were some 600,000 new registered voters. At the end of August the Florida Division of Elections reported there were 3,954,884 registered Republicans, 4,453,000 Democrats, in the state, in addition to 347, 519 individuals registered with minor parties and 1,988,679 registered with no-party- affiliation, bringing the total registered voters in the state to 10,744, 090. It is estimated that additional new voters registered in the state during September to October 6 could be as high as 100,000.
In Broward County up to the end of August, 504,105 registered Democrats virtually doubled 238,677 Republicans.
Democrats also exceeded Republicans in Palm Beach County 365,982 to 242,342 and in Miami-Dade 523,721 to 373,026. However, in Munroe County, registered 18,409 registered Republicans had a slight edge over 17, 206 Democrats.
Throughout the state’s 68 counties, 25 counties have more registered Republicans than Democrats. The fact that there are approximately 500,000 more Democrats registered in the state compared to Republicans should make Democrats optimistic of winning the state in November. However, over the past two presidential elections, Republicans have been much more adept of getting out the vote than Democrats. Plus, there is always the matter of how voters with no party affiliations will vote.
Unconfirmed reports are that the Obama campaign has been working tirelessly in making plans to get out the vote on Election Day, including reserving large numbers of rental cars to assist voters with transportation.
There have also been reports of record-breaking registration in the 18 states were voter registration ended on Monday, with incidences of higher registered Democrats than Republicans, especially in states crucial to the outcome of the elections.
Estimates are that Democrats have added close to 900,000 voters while Republicans have lost 300,000 in eight of the most tightly fought states in the presidential race: Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico and New Hampshire. The losses occur because voters switch parties or are removed from registration lists because of death, relocation or they didn’t vote in recent elections.
Source: Secretaries of state
Some 25 states are still registering voters, including Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. Some will close registration in a few days, other a few weeks and others, like North Dakota and Vermont will stop at the end of the month.
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