Most voter registration in North Carolina ended last Friday (the exception is people who vote early beginning April 17, and who register at the polling place.) This morning the Raleigh News & Observer in a story headlined "More North Carolinians sign up to vote", published the statewide registration figures, along with polls on the governor, U.S. senator, the Clinton-Obama races, along with the now obligatory "Republican says Obama out of touch with rural voters" blurb.
The statewide totals for new voter registration show that the electorate has grown by 145,000 voters. It now totals roughly 5.75 million. The new registrants amount to 2.6% of all voters. The breakdown by party affiliation is:
Democrats: 76,131, or 53% of new registrants;
Independents: 53,732, or 37% of new registrants;
Republicans: 14,911, or 10% of new registrants.
The poll by Public Policy Polling was conducted April 12-13. It surveyed 538 "likely Democratic" voters. In addition to the presidential race (Obama 54, Clinton 34), they present results for the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate (Kay Hagan over Jim Neal by a 28% to 7% margin, with 58% undecided), and the Democratic primary for Governor (Perdue leading Moore 41-31).
The registration figures are of course great for the Dems, but they will need to continue this trend beyond this election if they hope to build an enduring electoral advantage.
If someone has registration data from other states, it would be interesting to compare results.