September 17, 2004

‘Unbelievable' number of new voters stepping up across state

The state has had an unprecedented number of people register to vote in the past year, a trend election officials attribute to unequaled interest in this fall's presidential race.

Statewide, 78,000 people have signed up to vote since last fall, according to statistics compiled by the West Virginia Democratic Legislative Council. The annual average is about 40,000, even in a presidential election cycle, said Pam Van Horn, director of the council.

"It's just an unbelievable number of people," Van Horn said Thursday. "I think there are just so many different groups from all the parties out there working so hard this year to register people that the numbers just keep jumping. It really is unprecedented."

In Kanawha County, the past two weeks have been record setting for the voter registration office. Almost 2,000 people have registered to vote in that time, estimates Vera McCormick, Kanawha County Registrar.

"We're sometimes getting 300 to 400 in the mail a day," McCormick said. "A lot of groups are carrying them in. We got 500 from the Secretary of State's office just yesterday. Interest is always higher in a presidential election, but I thought by now most people who are going to register would have already done it."

Kanawha County had about 124,282 registered voters as of last month, McCormick said. Registrations from the past two weeks haven't been added to final registration figures.

Going into the 2002 presidential election, that number in Kanawha County hovered a little above 118,000. Before May's primary, it almost had reached 122,000. The county's population is about 200,000.

Before the primary, the state had about 1.1 million registered voters, according to statistics from the Secretary of State's Office. About 1.4 million people in West Virginia are thought to be eligible to vote.

Almost 60 percent of those registered then were Democrats, more than 30 percent were Republicans and 10 percent had no party affiliation. Less than half a percent were registered with the Mountain Party.

Election officials say registration typically slows down during the summer months after a primary, and then there's a flurry of new voter activity right before November's elections.

Officials with the state's Democratic Party said statistics from the Secretary of State's office show this summer was unparalleled in the number of people who registered to vote. Since the primary, 15,000 new Democrats have registered, 11,000 Republicans signed on and about 7,000 people registered as Independents or with no party affiliation.

Karen Coria of the state Federation of Democratic Women said the number of people registering parallels the number of people volunteering to campaign for candidates. That assertion backs up the fact that many voters view this presidential election as the most important one in their lifetimes, she said.

"I certainly think there is an expectation among West Virginians that during this election cycle they will have an opportunity to really exercise their opinions and their hopes and their feelings about their lives by choosing an individual who actually represents their lives," Coria said.

Both Republicans and Democrats have been pushing hard this year to sign up new voters. The GOP has been enticing new voters to join its ranks specifically to defeat Democrat Warren McGraw in the state Supreme Court race and to keep President George W. Bush in office. Democrats are touting John Kerry's election in November as the best way to see instant change in the nation's economy by ousting the Republican administration.

Between November of last year and May, the Democratic Party in West Virginia had a net gain of about 14,000 voters and the GOP had increased its ranks by more than 12,000.

People now have until Oct. 13 to register to vote at their county clerk's office or to mail in their voter registration form. The form can be downloaded online at the Secretary of State's Web site, www.wvsos.org.