With less than four weeks to go before the presidential election, almost 2,000 people in the region have registered to vote in the past month.

Those who take part in early voting (one-stop voting) between Oct. 16 and Nov. 1 can register to vote at the polls, but those who vote on Election Day Nov. 4 must be registered to vote by Oct. 10.

Many people have just registered to vote in the past month: 930 in Jackson County, 326 in Macon County, 208 in Swain County, and 493 in Haywood County.

“We’ve had a lot of registration drives,” Jackson County Board of Elections Director Lisa Lovedahl said. “There is a lot of interest in this election.”

Swain County Board of Elections Director Joan Weeks agreed, “There seems to be more interest in this election than others.”

In the last presidential election in 2004 there were 5,519,992 registered voters in North Carolina, according to the State Board of Elections. On Monday (Oct. 5) there were 6,041,289 people registered to vote in the state — 2,742,294 Democrats, 1,961,600 Republicans, 1,703 Libertarians, and 1,335,692 unaffiliated.

Since the last presidential election in 2004, voter registration numbers have gone up in the region also, and the number of unaffiliated voters is on the rise.

In 2004 there were less unaffiliated voters in Swain County than Republicans and now there are more unaffiliated voters than Republicans in that county.

George W. Bush won in North Carolina in the 2004 election when he defeated John Kerry. North Carolina has 15 electoral votes and is being viewed as a swing state in the Obama/McCain race.

In the 2004 election, Jackson, Haywood, Swain and Macon counties supported Bush.

John Malone, a volunteer at the Haywood County Democratic Party Headquarters, said he thinks Haywood County and the state will vote Democrat this time.

“I think people are sick and tired of the government they voted for four years ago,” Malone said. “I think people are starting to hurt more (financially) than four years ago.”

Malone added, “People are without health insurance. They see a ray of hope with Obama’s plan for healthcare plan. Unemployment is out of control, the housing market in this region is dead. I think the whole state will go for Obama. We’re working our tails off to make sure than happens.

“We’re so much more active here than the McCain campaign is. I’ve been working since before the primary registering voters.”

Malone was surprised that in the past month there have been more Republicans registered than Democrats in Haywood County.

According to the Haywood County Elections Office, there were 493 voters registered in Haywood County from Sept. 1 to Oct. 2; of those, 162 were Democrats, 165 Republicans, 165 unaffiliated, and one Libertarian.

“They’re (Republicans) catching up,” Malone said. “Well they don’t have much time to catch up with us because registration closes Friday except for one-stop voting.”

Jackson County Republican Party Chairman Dodie Allen – who is running for the N.C. House against incumbent Rep. Phil Haire in 119th District — was not as confident in McCain’s chances of winning the state as Malone was of his party’s candidate. But Allen said she thinks McCain will win in the western part of the state.

“On the overall state I think it will be a close race; in the western counties it will be a conservative vote,” Allen said.

Allen said she cannot predict who will win the state, saying a lot hinges on the next three weeks and the next two debates.

“Unfortunately the racial component influences a lot of people on how they vote; I think that still exists today,” Allen said.

Jean Whisnant of Whittier probably won’t vote for Obama or McCain as she is one of three voters registered as Libertarians in Jackson County.

“They (Libertarians) are socially liberal and fiscally conservative,” Whisnant said. “We think less government is better.”

The Libertarian philosophy is, “You should be able to do anything as long as you don’t harm anyone else. We don’t like government telling us what to do one way or another.”

Whisnant added, “I’ve been trying to get other people to register that way (Libertarian).”