Great registration news out of Tennessee in today's
Nashville City Paper.
The straight numbers: 65,000 new voters since this time last week, total of 329,000 for the year, with "buckets" to still be counted.
Quotes and full logic after the jump, but the DP here credits the increase to a more relevant Democratic primary held in February as opposed to March.
"It's going to be an all-time record number and there are buckets of them still in our office," [TN elections coordinator Brook] Thompson said.
Thompson predicts that, although former Vice President Al Gore Jr. isn't on the ballot this year, as many Tennesseans who voted in 2000 may turn out Nov. 2 to vote in the presidential race between President George Bush and Sen. John Kerry.
Both sides try to spin the increased numbers as a positive for their party, but our side's reasoning seems much more grounded in logic... surprise, surprise.
State Democrats say a majority of the new voters this year are due to the popularity of the new Tennessee Presidential Primary, which was reset for Feb. 10 this year by the General Assembly.
The primary, formerly in March had been essentially meaningless due to its late date in the primary cycle. Ultimately the primary here proved key in the election as many observers declared U.S. Sen. John Kerry the winner following his Tennessee victory. And the national importance of the Democratic primary, brought in new voters for Democrats, says the party.
"Speculators would say that 70 percent of all those new registrants are Democratic registered voters that either did it to take part in the primary or who are just energized about this election," said Gentry McCreary, the state Democratic Party spokesperson. "And I think the heavy numbers are good for us and if turnout numbers are high I think it's going to be good for Democrats."
Now it's on to the GOTV efforts, especially for early voting, which is gearing up here. Turnout favors us. All you North Georgians and North Alabamians who can't drive to Florida to help should hop across the line to Tennessee and lend a hand!