{MD} Registered Voters Increase 10% Since '04 (WashPo)

By Lisa Rein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 24, 2008; Page B03

More than 300,000 new Maryland voters are eligible to cast ballots in the Nov. 4 presidential election, a 10 percent jump from 2004, according to final registration numbers released yesterday by the state Board of Elections.

The increase of 321,218 voters brings the number of registered Democrats to 1.9 million and the number of registered Republicans to 926,348. Most of the gain went to the Democrats, who are up from 1.7 million in 2004; the Republicans are up from 907,493. The change seems likely to favor the Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), who is expected to carry the heavily Democratic state.

A late surge appears to have swelled the voter rolls in Prince George's County, where election officials delivered hundreds more electronic poll books and voting machines this week in addition to the extra equipment that counties and cities across the state received earlier. More than 28,000 new voters registered in Prince George's between Sept. 30 and the Oct. 14 deadline for a total of 494,859, an increase of 6 percent from four years ago.

Virginia, a key battleground in the race between Obama and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), has also reported swelling voter registration, with nearly a half-million new voters and the highest single-year boost in at least a decade. D.C. officials are still counting new voters.

Maryland elections chief Linda H. Lamone has predicted an Election Day voter turnout of at least 85 percent, and 90 percent in some areas.
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more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/23/AR2008102303100.html?hpid=sec-metro