Politics
Election 2012: Obama campaign using voter registration to win North Carolina
Romney’s campaign won’t say how many new voters they have registered in the state.
And registration numbers alone don’t tell the whole story in North Carolina. Democrats have long outnumbered Republicans in the state, even though voters sided with GOP presidential candidates for decades. And Democratic registration has fallen by about 90,000 since the end of 2008, while unaffiliated voters have increased by more than 250,000.
A shortage of independent polls in North Carolina makes the state’s status 40 days out hard to judge. But both parties say the race is tight.
“Changing demographics have made this state more competitive than past years,” said Robert Reid, Romney’s North Carolina communications director. But he expressed confidence that the lagging economy would help the Republican win a close contest.
“The race is, and has been, within the margin of error,” said Ken Eudy, a veteran Democratic strategist in North Carolina.
North Carolina’s rapid transition from a GOP stalwart to a presidential battleground has largely been due to increased voter registration of new African-American and Hispanic residents, as well as of transplants from the Northeast.
They’re people like Diana Hrabosky, a Democrat who just moved to the state and registered to vote on Wednesday with an Obama campaign volunteer. And Walter Woody III, who recently turned 18 and is eligible to vote for the first time.
