Yesterday was the last day to register to vote for Pennsylvania's closed primary on April 22. The Obama campaign launched a massive effort to reach it's goal of registering 100,000 voters for the Democratic Party. We rallied up and covered every Easter service, train station, busy street in West Philadelphia with people to get people registered.
Yesterday, I was signing people up in a park on West Philadelphia. Most notable, I ran into an illiterate man who wanted to change his registration from Republican to Democrat. I filled out the form for him and he signed it. As we finished, I witnessed a glimmer of hope in his eye; even through through his obvious poverty.
Obama is going to sweep Philadelphia. More PA results below.
The media is already picking up on the results of this massive efforts: over 4 million people will be voting in the Democratic Primary.
In Philadelphia Metro
"It's been a madhouse," said Joseph Passarella, the director of voter services, whose office stayed open late - until 8 p.m. - to accommodate the crowds.
At county election boards across the state, lines snaked down hallways as voters rushed to meet last night's deadline for registering to vote in the April 22 primary matchup between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of State, 19,639 new voters signed up in the period between March 10 and 17, the latest statewide data available. Of those, 14,256 registered as Democrats.
Also, 29,060 people changed their party affiliation to Democrat in just those seven days.
That increased the total number of eligible Democrats to 4,044,952, an increase of 4 percent from last November.
And those numbers don't reflect the major voter registration push that the Clinton and Obama campaigns waged this past weekend, leading up to yesterday's deadline.
It also doesn't include the crush of applications received by election boards yesterday, many of which added staff and stayed open late to keep up with demand.
In Pittsburg Area:
Election officials throughout the Alle-Kiski Valley were besieged Monday with voters looking to register for next month's Democratic presidential primary between Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.
As Allegheny County election workers darted between buzzing computer terminals and last-minute registrants lined up at counters, Josh Crosbie quietly sat at a desk in the County Office Building and filled out voter information.
"I used to be independent ... (but) this is a pretty important primary coming up," said Crosbie, 35, who recently moved to Wilkinsburg and registered Monday as a Democrat.
He said he plans to vote for Sen. Barack Obama in Pennsylvania's April 22 primary. "I kind of like the fact that he's not a political insider," said Crosbie, but added he would support Sen. Hillary Clinton if she secures the Democratic presidential nomination.
In the middle:
BELLEFONTE — The Democratic presidential primary shifts out of voter-sign-up phase and into get-out-the-vote phase today with the passing of Monday's deadline to register for Pennsylvania's April 22 contest.
Monday's conclusion of registration raised the curtain for intensified attacks between the Democratic rivals and for scheduled appearances in State College this week by former President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton's top surrogate, and former Sen. Harris Wofford, who supports Barack Obama.
Although the final registration count won’t be known for days, county and campaign officials estimated that roughly 4,500 completed voter registration forms were delivered to the county this month.
The most recent data, from March 17, counted 36,625 registered Republicans in Centre County and 33,203 registered Democrats, so the forthcoming tally will show whether enough new Democrats registered to flip the county from red to blue.
The best part about volunteering in West Philadelphia is the racial mix of people working for the campaign. Black, white, brown: we are all working together to get Obama in the whitehouse. I am meeting my neighbors. Everyone is excited.