Flood of new registrations cheers Democrats in city

[modrepub]

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/9953968.htm


By Tom Infield

Inquirer Staff Writer


A surge in voter registration that includes more than 100,000 new voters in Philadelphia since April has raised Democratic hopes of carrying Pennsylvania for John Kerry on Nov. 2.

With new Democrats outnumbering new Republicans by a ratio of 9-1 in the state's largest city, U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D., Philadelphia) said: "This is going to be the final piece of the puzzle to put Pennsylvania in Kerry's column."

<snip>

According to the nearly finished tally, city Democrats since the primary have added 70,398 voters to their rolls, which stand at 798,268. The Republicans have added 6,786 to their total of 176,063. The remaining new registrants are independents or members of minor parties.

<snip>

In heavily Democratic Allegheny County, the state's second-largest county, where Pittsburgh is situated, an official said yesterday that more than 60,000 voters had been added - 30,354 of them Democrats and 15,792 of them Republicans.

<snip>

Marcel Groen, the Montgomery County Democratic chairman, said his party's figures showed that Democrats had made strides. He said they had cut a 110,000 deficit in voter registration in 2000 to 55,000 today.

"Our trend indicates that this is going to be the last presidential election in which Republicans hold a majority in Montgomery County," Groen said.

In Chester County, which is heavily Republican, an official said that Democrats had picked up 11,193 voters and Republicans 8,847. Overall, 26,793 names had been added.

In Bucks County, an official said 29,908 new registrations included 12,142 Democrats and 10,312 Republicans.

<end>

Well done...

[truthisfreedom]

1. good. now we wait to see if the votes are counted.

argh.

[rjbny62]

2. NPR reporting today that there are 700,000 new voters in OH

I doubt that the pollsters figure them into their likely voter numbers.

[lakeguy]

3. they don't.

[mulethree]

4. Any idea how they figure out their 'likely voters'?

Do they call people at random and ask them if they plan to vote - and answering yes makes you a likely voter?

Or are they working off some demographic profiles based on historical information?

I wonder if the "I don't answer the phone when a pollster's on my callerid" people have a different profile from those who respond?

[bemildred]

5. "likely voter" == "likely to vote republican" nt