Registered Voters Increase 10% Since '04

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.

Voter rolls in Montgomery County grew by 8 percent since 2004, to 557,730. The city of Baltimore had the largest percentage increase in new voters, about 20 percent.

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.

Lamone and her staff have a devised a "line alleviation" plan to minimize waiting times on Election Day. She is urging voters to arrive at their precincts between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., when lines will be shortest, to read their sample ballots well before they step in the voting booth and to find out where they vote before Nov. 4, "to make sure they're in the right place."

In a change since the 2006 general election, voters whose names do not appear on their precinct registers will not be able to cast provisional ballots outside the election districts where they live. In most counties, election districts include multiple voting precincts.

In another change, voters intending to cast absentee ballots must attest that they will be unable to vote in person Nov. 4. In recent years, Marylanders had broader latitude to vote absentee. The deadline to request an absentee ballot is Tuesday.