Georgia's voter rolls swell ahead of July primary

ATLANTA - Georgia's voter rolls continue to grow.

The number of registered voters in the state has jumped 7 percent in the last year, and 9 percent since the 2004 presidential contest, according to data the Secretary of State's office released Tuesday.

Voter registration was up in advance of the state's Feb. 5 presidential primary and has continued to rise since. The state has added 210,441 voters since February, state elections officials said.

Some of the biggest gains have been among black and Hispanic voters, who have both posted higher percentage growth than whites in recent months. All told, some 4.7 million active registered voters are eligible to cast a ballot in Georgia's July 15 primary, more than ever before in the state.

Registration for the primary closed June 16. The primary features a five-way race among Democrats for the right to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss in November.

Political experts said excitement surrounding the November presidential race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain is drawing more people into the process. It's attracting new voters at a faster pace than the run-up to the 2004 presidential contest.

Between June 2003 and June 2004 - as Republican George W. Bush battled Democrat John Kerry - the number of registered voters increased by 177,607 in Georgia, a 4.5 percent rise. From June 2007 to June 2008, voter pools expanded by 337,336, or a 7 percent increase, according to state numbers.

Whites still make up the largest number of voters in the state and their numbers have continued to grow steadily this year. There are about 3 million white voters, according to the Secretary of State's office data for June. Since February, 91,211 whites registered to vote, a 2.9 percent increase.

But percentage-wise, minority voters are rising faster and now make up a sizable chunk of the electorate. Roughly one in every three registered voters in Georgia is nonwhite, the state numbers show.

Andra Gillespie, a political science professor at Emory University who studies post-civil rights black leadership, called the rise in black registration unsurprising given Obama's history-making quest to become the nation's first black president.

Obama also has paid campaign aides on the ground in Georgia focused on registering black voters.

"You are seeing some African Americans signing up to vote because they want to be involved in what they perceive to be a historic election," Gillespie said.

Since February, black voter registration has jumped 88,476, or 6.6 percent.

Hispanic voters still make up a tiny portion of Georgia's voting pool, just 60,601 voters in all. But they have added 6,787 voters since February, an increase of 11 percent.