The numbers are in...new Ohio voters will comprise over 10% of the total

[farmbo]

The numbers are in in Ohio. New registrations ended yesterday, and newly registered voters will comprise over 10% of the total:

http://www.dispatch.com/?story=dispatch/2004/10/05/20041005-A1-00.html

In Columbus, and across the nation, voters’ ranks swelled by newcomers
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
Alice Thomas and Catherine Candisky
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

TOM DODGE | DISPATCH
<snip>
Not counting yesterday’s additions, the county has registered 98,153 voters this year, said Worley, who was working the table outside the elections board’s office, 280 E. Broad St.

Yesterday’s drive increased the county total by at least 20,000, bringing the total of registered voters to about 837,000, elections board director Matt Damschroder said.

Surges were reported around Ohio and in more than a dozen other states where the registration deadline was yesterday.In Cuyahoga County, home of heavily Democratic Cleveland, elections officials yesterday alone received nearly 20,000 voter-registration cards and, as of 2 p.m., had taken 15,000 phone calls, most from people wanting to confirm that they were registered.

The office has received 235,000 voter registration cards this year, Vu said, estimating that of those about 100,000 were new voters. The balance were name and address changes and duplicates.
<snip>

Registration in predominantly Republican Hamilton County (Cincinnati) came to only 60,000. Note: MoveOn.org and ACTOhio were particularly active in Cincinnati.

In Ohio, voters cannot register as a particular party supporter...only after a record of primary voting do they show up as a Dem or GOPer. But the NYTimes researched the voting history of the precincts where the new voters were registering and concluded that registrations in Dem areas were up by 250%,outstripping registrations in GOP areas which were only up 25%:
<snip>
A sweeping voter registration campaign in heavily Democratic areas has added tens of thousands of new voters to the rolls in the swing states of Ohio and Florida, a surge that has far exceeded the efforts of Republicans in both states, a review of registration data <snip>

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10617FB345D0C758EDDA00894DC404482

The moral of the story: a lot of new Ohio Dems will be coming out to the polls...IF (BIG IF)...we pull off a strong GOTV effort.

And protect our ballots.

(edited for link)

[underpants]

1. Good

Apparently this happened in Va. too.

Of course much more attention is being paid to OhioOhioOhio


ON EDIT-Xenia born myself, Yellow Springs until I was 6.

[demnan]

2. That's wonderful!

And even if we don't make Virginia blue, on the precinct level we can make a difference.

Also if the precincts who are Democrat vote for Democrats for Congress, we can make a difference!

[roseBudd]

3. Dems had more potential unregistered to go after

Likely democratic voters in the innercity

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

4. Giddy up!

I don't think this election is going to be as close as people believe. GIVE EM HELL JOHN!!!

[Bucky]

7. You sig image

Are you sure that "10 out of 10 terrorists agree" to supporting Bush-Cheney. I'd think that at least a couple of them like Ralph.

[CityHall]

5. Landslide

Starting to look like a landslide for us, especiall if people who became interested in the last debate watch the next two. Anyone watching Bush's forthcoming debate performances looking for signs he might actually be an idiot will no doubt find convincing evidence even without prompting on our part.

[yellowcanine]

6. 15,000 phone calls,... from people... to confirm ... they were registered!

A very good sign!. These people are voting - and they are voting for Kerry in Ohio.

[madrchsod]

8. i listened to some

woman on a Cleveland am station last night,somehow i picked it up in northern il, she was ranting about some counties had more registrations than people in the counties. she was talking to a planted caller about this horrible situation but some reason why she never mentioned what party was registering the most voters. what a b****

[DeepModem Mom]

9. kick

[kentuck]

10. That's a nightmare for all politicians..

including some Democrats. Because they cannot predict who will vote. They have been able to predict who will vote by who voted last time and they had their predictions down to an artform, but this sort of turns that on its head.

[cally]

11. No, it doesn't

It just takes more work and phone calls. We are calling every newly registered voter who is not a Dem or Repub to determine who they will vote for. Then we will call all Dem supporters on election day or the night before in precincts with many laborers who head to work early. We need phone callers as I assume everyone else does. We can do this if we work hard enough.

[kentuck]

13. But for the politicians....

They have been able to predict the electorate quite accurately. This could throw them for a loop, in my opinion. It's become more unpredictable.

[cally]

14. I agree with that

This will be a hard election to predict. It all depends on who does a better job getting out the vote. The R's have a great GOTV plan and a very corporate style GOTV effort but the Dems have motivation and many volunteers. I'm betting on the Dems.

[bagnana]

12. what about absentee ballots?

I read that story about the Ohio GOP sending out 3 million absentee ballot applications to outdated republicans living in surrounding states, thus inviting dual voting. what is the absentee ballot count?

[Name removed]

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