Jeanette Der Bedrosian, The Examiner
2008-02-12 08:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

WASHINGTON -

Local elections officials are expecting strong turnouts for today’s primary elections, but say they are prepared to handle the crowds.

“Our precincts will be fully staffed and we are ready to go,” said Bill O’Field, spokesman for the D.C. Board of Elections.

New equipment, better training of election officers, added precincts and electronic voting are some of the ways election officials said they are trying to speed up the voting process.

Across the region, voter registration has increased since the 2004 primaries.

“We’ve had a very high number of voter registrations and that usually points to a high turnout,” said Barbara Cockrell, director of operations for the Virginia Board of Elections.

In January, Virginia saw a net gain of 33,316 new voters, according to Cockrell. Maryland reported a gain of 315,845 new voters since the registration deadline for the 2004 primaries, and the District reported a gain of 33,229 new voters since February 2004, according to the Board of Elections Web sites.

“It certainly is a very important election,” Cockrell said. “The stakes are very high, and I think people are very aware of that.”

Maryland’s state elections administrator expects 35 percent of voters to show up, said Mary Cramer Wagner, director of the Voter Registration Division of the state Board of Elections in Maryland.

In the 2004 primaries, about 13 percent of registered voted came to the voting booths, while 9.23 percent of Virginians did. Maryland posted a 23.68 percent turnout.