NYT article on new registrations for this presidential election.....

...and predicts as many as 12 million to 15 million more people will vote this year than in 2000. Does anyone know the total number of new registrations there are across the country?

<snip>
October 27, 2004
REGISTRATION
As Voting Rolls Increase, So Do the Wild Cards
By JAMES DAO

OLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 26 - Lionel White seems like the kind of new voter who could help the Democrats win this crucial swing state. He is 23, black, works at a fast food restaurant and is angry about the economy, urban blight and the war in Iraq.

But Mr. White registered himself to vote this year for the first time because he was getting paid by the Urban League to register others. He did not watch the debates, confesses to having a marginal interest in politics and feels the candidates are not talking about issues he cares about. He is lukewarm at best about going to the polls next week.

"I don't think either one of them gives a damn about us," he said of the two main presidential candidates while standing on the stoop of his house on the east side of this city.

As Mr. White's story suggests, many newly registered voters are wild cards whose uncertain allegiances could tip the vote in closely contested states like this one, making such voters the focus of an intense tug of war between the parties.

Certainly, their numbers are legion. In Ohio, nearly three-quarters of a million people registered to vote this year, bringing the state's total registration to over 7.8 million, a record. In Iowa, Florida and Pennsylvania as well, registration drives - largely by Democratic groups - have swelled voter rolls to new levels, raising the likelihood that more people will vote this year than since the high-turnout year of 1992, experts said.

<link> http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/27/politics/campaign/27voters.html?th

the numbers.

lines to defeat bush. Never before in history has America united to defeated ONE MAN, one very bad man and his nefarious regime.

We welcome them all with open arms... We're doing the right thing.

here's what we do in my town of 18,000 in NE New Jersey:

We (local Dems) get a list every few days (until registrations are final 30 days before an election) and then mail new voters welcoming them as responsible citizens, no campaign pitches then.

We follow up with mail from our candidates telling the new voters about them and what they want to do if elected (no negative stuff).

We mail them an application for an absentee ballot because most of them are college students. Then we call them (our lists have phone numbers for almost all of them) to see if they have filled out their absentees. If they indicate they will vote in person on election day we offer them a ride to the polls if necessary and call them again on Election Day.