PROVIDENCE, R.I.—It's not often that tiny Rhode Island, with just 21 elected delegates, figures in presidential politics. But this year, with polls still showing a close race between Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, every vote counts, and the Ocean State has caught a presidential fever ahead of Tuesday's primary.
"This is a totally different kind of election. There's a lot of energy in the air," said Justin Aina, 53, a management consultant from East Providence who plans to vote for Obama. "The Republicans have to go. The old politicians have to go. We need some new blood."
The excitement is so high that elections officials have printed twice as many ballots as usual for a primary, hired additional poll workers and sent extra voting booths to precincts to prevent long waits and will even send police officers to school parking lots to make sure traffic flows smoothly outside polling places.
They say they're also prepared in case of voter confusion over where to cast ballots. The number of polling places is 30 percent lower than in a typical election because primary turnout is usually very low. But some officials have opened additional polling places in anticipation of a high turnout, and the Secretary of State has opened a phone line for people to call if they aren't sure of their new polling place.
About 21,000 new voters registered in the months before the primary, bringing the total of registered voters to more than 663,000, said Chris Barnett, a spokesman for the Secretary of State's office. That office estimates about 180,000 voters could go to the polls Tuesday, a turnout of about 28 percent. That's much more than in 2000, the last time the office was open, when turnout was just 13 percent.
"I assume we're going to have the biggest turnout we've ever had," said Joseph A. DeLorenzo Jr., the chairman of the Cranston Board of Canvassers.
DeLorenzo said the city will have 10 polling places open Tuesday, as opposed to 48 in a general election. But even fewer polling places were going to be open until last week, when officials decided to add a few more because of the anticipated turnout. The city will also have extra people manning the phones Tuesday in case voters need help.
Karen Turcotte, director of The Center, a senior center in South Kingstown, said it had a handful of calls Monday from people unsure of where to vote. But she said it was not a problem for staffers to help people look up their polling place on the Secretary of State's Web site.
Democrats outnumber Republicans in Rhode Island more than three to one, although voters who are unaffiliated with either party outnumber them both combined. Unaffiliated voters can cast a ballot in either primary, although Democratic primaries usually draw much more interest -- and this year is expected to be no different.
In the Republican race, Sen. John McCain is so far ahead of his closest rival, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, that he could lock up the nomination on Tuesday. Clinton was leading Obama in Rhode Island, according to a Brown University poll last month, although Obama was gaining ground.
Bob Kando, executive director of the Board of Elections, said local elections officials are supplied with plenty of ballots, even if a large number of unaffiliated show up to vote in the Democratic primary.
"I would be shocked if anybody came close to, even made a phone call for, additional ballots," he said. "Ballots are really not an issue, nor do we expect them to be."
Laurence K. Flynn, executive secretary of the board of canvassers in Providence, said he hoped to avoid waits at the polls by having a greeter at every polling place to direct people where to go, and by adding more privacy booths.
"If it becomes a problem, we have a pool of poll workers that we can dip into," he said.
But voters said they were determined to vote Tuesday and wouldn't be deterred, even if they have to wait.
Dan Carroll, 25, a carpenter from Woonsocket, said he's heading to the polls right after work to cast a ballot, most likely for Huckabee.
"I'm at least one vote for him," he said.
Another Obama supporter, Nancy Flynn, 59, of Pawtucket, said she fully expects a line when she gets to her polling place at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, because she has heard more people had registered to vote ahead of the primary.
"I'm pretty much sick of the establishment," she said. "I'm hoping he can do something."
