Many officials reported record numbers of new voters, some said they were overwhelmed, and allegations were already flying about fraud and the disqualification of some voters' applications.

"They're coming in, in buckets," said Pamela Swafford, deputy director of Ohio's Hamilton County board of elections. By Monday morning, the county that includes Cincinnati had 64,045 new voter registrations on hand, more than twice the 29,178 it received four years ago.....

"If you walk into our mail room, we have stacks and stacks of new forms coming in," said Kara Sinkule, spokeswoman for Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox, who oversees elections. "It's a great problem to have."

Her state is on pace to see a 50 percent increase in new voters for this presidential election compared to 2000. In the past year, 371,376 new voters registered, with 87,110 new voters in September alone. And the surge grew even bigger in the first few days of October....

Pennsylvania's suburban Montgomery County, the state's largest Republican-leaning county, saw a bigger surge than the past two elections, with three Democrats registering for every two Republicans, said Joseph R. Passarella, the county's director of voter services. An analysis by the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal found that registration was up higher in that state's traditionally Democratic counties, and not as high in counties that usually vote GOP.

- posted by Cynthia @ 9:54 PM | | | Link |