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By KATE ZERNIKE and FORD FESSENDEN
ny times
Published: October 4, 2004
A record surge of potential new voters has swamped boards of election from Pennsylvania to Oregon, as the biggest of the crucial swing states reach registration deadlines today. Elections officials have had to add staff and equipment, push well beyond budgets and work around the clock to process the registrations.
In Montgomery County, Pa., the elections staff has been working nights and weekends since the week before Labor Day to process the crush of registrations - some 32,000 since May and counting. Today is the deadline for registering new voters in Pennsylvania, as well as Ohio, Michigan, Florida and 12 other states, and election workers will go on mandatory overtime to chip away at the thousands of forms that have been arriving daily.
To help in the effort, the Montgomery office has also added 12 computers, 15 phone lines and 12 workers from other departments - as well as one of the technicians whose usual job is fixing voting machines at the warehouse.
Across the county line in Philadelphia, overtime and weekend duty began in July to deal with what is now the highest number of new voter registrations in 21 years. The office says it is still six days behind the flow, and the last two days have brought about 10,500 new registration forms. At 204,000, the number of new registrations has already surpassed that of the last big year, 1992, which had 193,000.
"The vote was so close four years ago, people are now thinking, hey, maybe my vote does count," said Joseph R. Passarella, the director of voter services in Montgomery County. Al Gore won in Pennsylvania in 2000 by 204,840 votes.
Officials across the country report similar patterns.
"Everything we're seeing is that there has been a tremendous increase in voter registration," said Kay Maxwell, president of the League of Women Voters. "In the past, we've been enthused about what appeared to be a large number of new voters, but this does seem to be at an entirely different level."
Registration numbers are impossible to tally nationwide, and how many of the newly registered will vote is a matter of some debate. But it is clear the pace is particularly high in urban areas of swing states, where independent Democratic groups and community organizations have been running a huge voter registration campaign for just over a year.
The parties have been registering voters as well, with Republicans especially active in critical states in an effort to counter the independent groups.
In Cleveland, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has spent $200,000 on temporary workers this year to deal with a wave of 230,000 new registrations, more than double the number in 2000. The number of registrations in Tallahassee, Fla., is up 20 percent since the presidential primary in March. And St. Louis is reporting the largest growth ever in potential new voters.
"We are moving toward having the largest number of registered voters in the history of St. Louis County," said David Welch, one of the directors of elections.
Las Vegas added 3,000 to 4,000 voters a week in 2000 but is doing triple that this year, forcing the office to hire 30 additional workers. The elections director said he was getting 3,000 new cards a day last week.
Eight states reached registration deadlines over the weekend, and registration will end in 31 states by the end of the week. New Jersey's deadline is today, New York's Friday. The registration deadline in Connecticut is Oct. 19. Six states allow registration on Election Day.
A coalition of nonpartisan groups called National Voice announced last week a push for an additional 200,000 registrations in the last days. Project Vote, the nonpartisan arm of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which claims more than a million registrations in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington and other states, planned to have its largest force of paid workers on the streets over the weekend registering people to vote
These nonpartisan community groups, as well as Democratic organizations like America Coming Together, have driven most of the increase, registration officials say. In Florida and Ohio, Republicans have mounted moderately successful campaigns that have increased registration in suburban communities.
But the huge gains have come in areas with minority and low-income populations. In some of those areas in Ohio, new registrations have quadrupled from 2000. President Bush won in Ohio in 2000 by 165,019 votes.
It is harder to say what is driving the registration increase in Montgomery County, which is still considered "a Republican town" even though it went for Mr. Gore in 2000 and Bill Clinton before that. One of the wealthiest counties in Pennsylvania, it has had a lot of new building in recent years. But it also has working-class communities and is about 10 percent minority, and the community organizations say they have worked hard to register people here.
Some people registering have lived here for years but have not voted.
"I've been too lazy," said Kurt Saukaitis, 43, who was registering at the county office. He and his new wife, Candy, both have 16-year-old sons. "The thought of a draft is scary," Mr. Saukaitis said.
He works at an aerospace factory that was bought recently by a company on the West Coast, creating economic anxiety among its workers. "All that money spent on Iraq, then old people can't buy medicine," he said. "Figure that out."
Bob Lee, the administrator for voter registrations in Philadelphia, said: "I think voter registration would be high even if this weren't a battleground state. Just because people have a very high interest in this election."
The big unknown is whether the new registrations will result in higher turnout. Election officials say some of the big groups seem to be signing up anyone on the streets to reach quotas, with half-filled-out forms suggesting something less than true enthusiasm.
Nevertheless, registration officials are expecting frantic deadline days; offices in Philadelphia and Miami-Dade County, Fla., will stay open until midnight. Matt Damschroder, the elections director in Columbus, Ohio, will post workers on the street outside the building to take registrations.
"Almost to an April 15, I.R.S. post office type of operation," Mr. Damschroder said. "We're expecting that it's going to be folks coming in by the truckload." He has had 12 people working around the clock in 12-hour shifts, six days a week, to keep up with the flow, but he is still two days behind.
Jacksonville, Fla., has hired 14 people since August, putting everyone on seven-day workweeks, 12 hours a day. Oregon's deadline is not until Oct. 12, but the state elections division has started sending registration cards to the counties daily instead of weekly to keep up with the pace of applicants. Marion County, which includes Salem, has tripled its staff, from 4 to 12.
In rural areas and in nonswing states, the picture is less extreme. The three employees in the elections office in Putnam County, Ohio, said they were handling new registrations with no problem. In largely uncontested South Carolina, Greenville County officials said the pace was about what it was in 2000, and in California, which has traditionally backed the Democratic candidate in presidential races, registrations in Los Angeles County were actually running below the level of four years ago. Yet in suburban Cook County, Illinois, outside Chicago, workers processed 46,000 registrations in September, the biggest monthly total since 1992.
Many elections offices said they had increased their overtime budgets in anticipation of a healthy increase in registration this year. But, as Michael Vu, the director in Cuyahoga County, said, "I don't think 100,000 extra voters was in anyone's plan."
Registration campaigns are usually reserved for August and September of election years. This round, the wave started early, with independent groups organizing in crucial states like Ohio last year. During the spring and summer, partisan and nonpartisan groups sent out hundreds of paid workers, and many swing states showed unusually early swells in registration in March, April and May.
There was some question whether the August and September peaks would be lower as a result, but elections officials in many places reported that their September numbers were higher than normal.
Ms. Maxwell, of the League of Women Voters, noted that surges in registration have sometimes dissolved in disappointing turnout. But last year in the Philadelphia mayor's race, independent groups that registered thousands of new voters claimed their turnout was nearly as high as that in the rest of the electorate. Steve Rosenthal, the Democratic chief executive of America Coming Together, said 44 percent of the 85,000 voters his organization registered last year turned out, compared with 49 percent over all.
Republicans, who have also shown huge success with face-to-face turnout campaigns in recent elections, say their voters are more committed and will be easier to get to the polls than Democrats.
Although many election officials reported backlogs, none said they would fail to get all the new voters on the rolls in time to vote on Nov. 2. But with so many new voters on the rolls, the election officials are starting to worry about what happens at the polls. Unfamiliarity with voting procedures, confusing ballots and faulty technology were largely to blame for Florida's election fiasco in 2000.
"It's going to be insane," said Tim Dowling, who was opening registration forms in Philadelphia. He corrected himself: "It's already insane. It's been nuts since June."
ny times
Published: October 4, 2004
A record surge of potential new voters has swamped boards of election from Pennsylvania to Oregon, as the biggest of the crucial swing states reach registration deadlines today. Elections officials have had to add staff and equipment, push well beyond budgets and work around the clock to process the registrations.
In Montgomery County, Pa., the elections staff has been working nights and weekends since the week before Labor Day to process the crush of registrations - some 32,000 since May and counting. Today is the deadline for registering new voters in Pennsylvania, as well as Ohio, Michigan, Florida and 12 other states, and election workers will go on mandatory overtime to chip away at the thousands of forms that have been arriving daily.
To help in the effort, the Montgomery office has also added 12 computers, 15 phone lines and 12 workers from other departments - as well as one of the technicians whose usual job is fixing voting machines at the warehouse.
Across the county line in Philadelphia, overtime and weekend duty began in July to deal with what is now the highest number of new voter registrations in 21 years. The office says it is still six days behind the flow, and the last two days have brought about 10,500 new registration forms. At 204,000, the number of new registrations has already surpassed that of the last big year, 1992, which had 193,000.
"The vote was so close four years ago, people are now thinking, hey, maybe my vote does count," said Joseph R. Passarella, the director of voter services in Montgomery County. Al Gore won in Pennsylvania in 2000 by 204,840 votes.
Officials across the country report similar patterns.
"Everything we're seeing is that there has been a tremendous increase in voter registration," said Kay Maxwell, president of the League of Women Voters. "In the past, we've been enthused about what appeared to be a large number of new voters, but this does seem to be at an entirely different level."
Registration numbers are impossible to tally nationwide, and how many of the newly registered will vote is a matter of some debate. But it is clear the pace is particularly high in urban areas of swing states, where independent Democratic groups and community organizations have been running a huge voter registration campaign for just over a year.
The parties have been registering voters as well, with Republicans especially active in critical states in an effort to counter the independent groups.
In Cleveland, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has spent $200,000 on temporary workers this year to deal with a wave of 230,000 new registrations, more than double the number in 2000. The number of registrations in Tallahassee, Fla., is up 20 percent since the presidential primary in March. And St. Louis is reporting the largest growth ever in potential new voters.
"We are moving toward having the largest number of registered voters in the history of St. Louis County," said David Welch, one of the directors of elections.
Las Vegas added 3,000 to 4,000 voters a week in 2000 but is doing triple that this year, forcing the office to hire 30 additional workers. The elections director said he was getting 3,000 new cards a day last week.
Eight states reached registration deadlines over the weekend, and registration will end in 31 states by the end of the week. New Jersey's deadline is today, New York's Friday. The registration deadline in Connecticut is Oct. 19. Six states allow registration on Election Day.
A coalition of nonpartisan groups called National Voice announced last week a push for an additional 200,000 registrations in the last days. Project Vote, the nonpartisan arm of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which claims more than a million registrations in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington and other states, planned to have its largest force of paid workers on the streets over the weekend registering people to vote
These nonpartisan community groups, as well as Democratic organizations like America Coming Together, have driven most of the increase, registration officials say. In Florida and Ohio, Republicans have mounted moderately successful campaigns that have increased registration in suburban communities.
But the huge gains have come in areas with minority and low-income populations. In some of those areas in Ohio, new registrations have quadrupled from 2000. President Bush won in Ohio in 2000 by 165,019 votes.
It is harder to say what is driving the registration increase in Montgomery County, which is still considered "a Republican town" even though it went for Mr. Gore in 2000 and Bill Clinton before that. One of the wealthiest counties in Pennsylvania, it has had a lot of new building in recent years. But it also has working-class communities and is about 10 percent minority, and the community organizations say they have worked hard to register people here.
Some people registering have lived here for years but have not voted.
"I've been too lazy," said Kurt Saukaitis, 43, who was registering at the county office. He and his new wife, Candy, both have 16-year-old sons. "The thought of a draft is scary," Mr. Saukaitis said.
He works at an aerospace factory that was bought recently by a company on the West Coast, creating economic anxiety among its workers. "All that money spent on Iraq, then old people can't buy medicine," he said. "Figure that out."
Bob Lee, the administrator for voter registrations in Philadelphia, said: "I think voter registration would be high even if this weren't a battleground state. Just because people have a very high interest in this election."
The big unknown is whether the new registrations will result in higher turnout. Election officials say some of the big groups seem to be signing up anyone on the streets to reach quotas, with half-filled-out forms suggesting something less than true enthusiasm.
Nevertheless, registration officials are expecting frantic deadline days; offices in Philadelphia and Miami-Dade County, Fla., will stay open until midnight. Matt Damschroder, the elections director in Columbus, Ohio, will post workers on the street outside the building to take registrations.
"Almost to an April 15, I.R.S. post office type of operation," Mr. Damschroder said. "We're expecting that it's going to be folks coming in by the truckload." He has had 12 people working around the clock in 12-hour shifts, six days a week, to keep up with the flow, but he is still two days behind.
Jacksonville, Fla., has hired 14 people since August, putting everyone on seven-day workweeks, 12 hours a day. Oregon's deadline is not until Oct. 12, but the state elections division has started sending registration cards to the counties daily instead of weekly to keep up with the pace of applicants. Marion County, which includes Salem, has tripled its staff, from 4 to 12.
In rural areas and in nonswing states, the picture is less extreme. The three employees in the elections office in Putnam County, Ohio, said they were handling new registrations with no problem. In largely uncontested South Carolina, Greenville County officials said the pace was about what it was in 2000, and in California, which has traditionally backed the Democratic candidate in presidential races, registrations in Los Angeles County were actually running below the level of four years ago. Yet in suburban Cook County, Illinois, outside Chicago, workers processed 46,000 registrations in September, the biggest monthly total since 1992.
Many elections offices said they had increased their overtime budgets in anticipation of a healthy increase in registration this year. But, as Michael Vu, the director in Cuyahoga County, said, "I don't think 100,000 extra voters was in anyone's plan."
Registration campaigns are usually reserved for August and September of election years. This round, the wave started early, with independent groups organizing in crucial states like Ohio last year. During the spring and summer, partisan and nonpartisan groups sent out hundreds of paid workers, and many swing states showed unusually early swells in registration in March, April and May.
There was some question whether the August and September peaks would be lower as a result, but elections officials in many places reported that their September numbers were higher than normal.
Ms. Maxwell, of the League of Women Voters, noted that surges in registration have sometimes dissolved in disappointing turnout. But last year in the Philadelphia mayor's race, independent groups that registered thousands of new voters claimed their turnout was nearly as high as that in the rest of the electorate. Steve Rosenthal, the Democratic chief executive of America Coming Together, said 44 percent of the 85,000 voters his organization registered last year turned out, compared with 49 percent over all.
Republicans, who have also shown huge success with face-to-face turnout campaigns in recent elections, say their voters are more committed and will be easier to get to the polls than Democrats.
Although many election officials reported backlogs, none said they would fail to get all the new voters on the rolls in time to vote on Nov. 2. But with so many new voters on the rolls, the election officials are starting to worry about what happens at the polls. Unfamiliarity with voting procedures, confusing ballots and faulty technology were largely to blame for Florida's election fiasco in 2000.
"It's going to be insane," said Tim Dowling, who was opening registration forms in Philadelphia. He corrected himself: "It's already insane. It's been nuts since June."
