Democratic presidential hopefuls Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, of New York, and Sen. Barack Obama, of Illinois, stand together before the start of a debate last night in Cleveland. AP / Mark Duncan

PROVIDENCE — Rarely has Rhode Island mattered this much.

Less than a week from now, in what some are calling the state’s first relevant primary in years, record numbers of voters are expected to crowd the polls and cast presidential nomination ballots.

The state insists it is prepared with a plan to handle the surge — launching public service advertisements and asking local communities to add poll workers and voting booths — but it will have to do so with fewer polling places statewide than it had in 2004.

In the four years since the last presidential primary, cities and towns have closed more than 80 polling sites as a way of saving money in tight budget times.

It’s a scenario some say could create trouble when Rhode Islanders head to the polls Tuesday, along with voters in Ohio, Texas and Vermont. In addition to voting for the candidates, Rhode Island voters will cast ballots for a total of 30 delegates — 17 Republicans and 13 Democrats.

Historically, Rhode Island’s turnout in presidential primaries is low. Four years ago it was a paltry 6 percent. Usually by the time the Ocean State’s primary comes around, candidates on both sides have sewn up their party’s nomination.

This year, however, with the Democratic race still up for grabs, voters in the nation’s most Democratic state aren’t likely to stay home.

Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis predicted that Rhode Island could see 30-percent voter turnout, the highest of any presidential primary in recent memory.

In the past year, 43,000 new Rhode Island voters have registered. That’s almost as many as voted in the 2004 primary. Of the newly registered, roughly 20,000 are between the ages of 18 and 29, the demographic once seen as among the hardest to mobilize. Requests for mail ballots were up 230 percent.

Add to that the personal visits by several of the candidates and the enthusiasm is hard to miss.

“When you put all of this together it became very obvious to us that people want to let their voice be heard on March 4,” Mollis said.

To cope, the secretary of state and the Board of Elections have asked polling places to add enough ballots, workers and voting booths to handle the record turnouts that other states have seen in recent primaries.

Larger polling places could hire as many as half a dozen more workers and, for the first time, each polling location will have a greeter whose sole job it is to keep orderly lines and usher voters to the appropriate booths.

The state has also launched its own public relations campaign, encouraging Rhode Islanders to vote at off-peak times, and asking employers to let workers duck out midday or work flexible schedules to avoid the early morning and dinnertime voting rushes.

Mollis has spent $15,000 in federal money to launch a series of television, radio and newspaper spots reminding people of the primary and inviting them to visit the secretary of state’s Web site for information about polling places. For those who can’t access the Internet, the state has set up a hotline to address questions.

With all these preparations, Board of Elections Executive Director Robert Kando said “it would be a shame if we didn’t get a large turnout.”

But the last time Rhode Island saw a surge of presidential primary voters, in 2000, there were 257 polling places statewide. On Tuesday there will be just 177.

So many fewer sites combined with record turnout “sounds like a bad combination,” said Brown University political science Prof. Darrell West.

Cities and towns were allowed to trim their already compressed primary sites as a cost-cutting measure. Now they’ll have to rely on added staff and police officers to handle potential crowds at the sites that remain.

Newport will spend an additional $6,000 to hire more poll workers and double its voting booths. Usually polls would be staffed with six workers, but Richard E. O’Neill, the city’s canvassing clerk, said the state is requiring the city to have four more people, or a total of 10 workers, plus a police officer.

Johnston Mayor Joseph M. Polisena quipped that the need for so many more workers has negated much of the savings that came in closing polling places in the first place.

But overall, Boards of Canvassers from South Kingstown to Central Falls said they are ready to handle crowd spikes. Even at polling places near college campuses — where turnouts are expected to be among the heaviest — election officials don’t foresee problems, noting that students often have the luxury of voting at off-peak times, mitigating pileups.

In the worst of circumstances, Lawrence K. Flynn, executive secretary and chairman of the Providence Board of Canvassers, said the city is prepared to call in additional poll workers midday on Tuesday, and can run additional voting booths out to clogged polling places. “But we’re pretty confident … I think we’re ready to meet the challenge,” Flynn said.

Contacted for comment last night, spokespersons for the Rhode Island campaigns of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama played down crowd concerns, saying they’re just focused on getting Rhode Islanders out to vote in an election that’s generated such enthusiasm.

To help prepare poll workers, the Board of Elections is running a series of training courses this week. At one such class in a Providence auditorium last night, Elmhurst resident Catherine Hanni and other workers listened carefully to how to trouble-shoot potential problems with ballots.

Hanni said working in past elections has taught her that it’s critical to get it right. “Experience at the polls influences turnout in future years,” she said.

Voters who have a good experience tend to return. Those who get stuck in long lines with big crowds and bigger headaches might not bother.

For more information about primary polling places, visit www.sec.state.ri.us or contact the elections help line at (401) 222-2340.

With staff reports from Richard Salit and Daniel Barbarisi

cneedham@projo.com