mjones@observer-reporter.com

Larry Spahr marvels at the "crush" of voter registration applications passing through the Washington County elections office.

With Pennsylvania expected to figure prominently in the Democratic primary between presidential hopefuls Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, more than 400 voters - and counting - have changed their party affiliation since February and roughly 1,200 others are registering to vote for the first time.

"There's been a lot of activity, relatively speaking. We've never approached a number to that level," said Spahr, the county's director of elections. "This is the most for a presidential primary since I began here in 1981. And the general election will be much worse. That's the final say, right there."

Monday was the deadline to register to vote for the April 22 primary, although the office is still accepting applications that are postmarked by March 24.

The office processed 4,700 registration applications - some of which merely include address changes - from Feb. 1 to March 15, and more are coming in. The elections office received "another bundle" of 200 applications by mail on Monday and Tuesday, meaning Spahr and his staff will work overtime to finish processing them by this weekend.

When all the applications are finally authorized, Spahr estimated more than 700 voters will have changed their party affiliation with a "preponderance" of them swaying to the Democratic Party.

"We began to expect it the way the race was going between Hillary and Obama," Spahr said. "Even though Pennsylvania holds its primary at a later date, it's going to have more of an impact than it has in the past 30 or 40 years."

According to recent Pennsylvania Department of State registration statistics, there are about 1,200 more registered Democrats in Washington County than in November 2007. Republicans dropped by 350 during that time, and registered independents remained largely unchanged.

The elections office in Greene County received between 500 and 600 voter applications as of Monday afternoon. Frances Pratt, the county's director of elections, remembers that the 2004 presidential election also sparked a great deal of interest and voter registrations. However, the amount of activity seems to be more this year, she said.

"We always like to see the registration rolls increased," Pratt said. "It's a good sign that people are interested in participating in the process."

Statewide, nearly 8.3 million people are currently registered to vote in the primary, and Department of State officials expect that number to increase prior to the general election in November. Of the 98,840 Pennsylvanians who have changed party affiliation, nearly 88 percent switched to Democrat.

Staff writer Cara Host contributed to this story.

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