Secretary of State Matt Brown says 680,392 people are eligible to cast ballots.

01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, October 31, 2004

BY BRUCE LANDIS
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Rhode Island has a record number of voters this year, although the number of additional people registered to vote in the period before this election is actually smaller than during the same period in the last presidential election.

A total of 680,392 people registered to vote before the Oct. 2 deadline, according to Secretary of State Matt Brown.

That represents a tiny, 1.3-percent increase over the number in the previous presidential election in 2000, when there were 671,612 registered voters.

Despite the close attention being paid to this year's election, the number of new voters registered in the months before this election was smaller than the number added in 2000, according to figures from Brown's office.

The number of additional voters who registered between June and Oct. 2 this year was 31,938, fewer than the 43,192 who registered during the same period in 2000.

That was in spite of the focus on this presidential election and of registration efforts this year by Brown's office, among others.

"In a democracy, nothing is more important than voter participation," Brown had said in a statement last month announcing what he said would be "intense" efforts to encourage people to register to vote, and to inform them about how to vote.

That included information on the new Help America Vote Act , which provides for provisional ballots for those whose eligibility is in question, as well as efforts to register Rhode Island troops, college students and new citizens.

Brown's communications director, Peter Kerwin, said the growth in registrations this election may have been smaller than before the previous one because there are fewer unregistered voters left.

"The pool is getting smaller," Kerwin said. "There are fewer and fewer people who are not registering."

Brown, meanwhile, reminded voters about two services he's providing, a toll-free voter information hot line and an online polling place locator.

The hot line is at 1-877-GO2-VOTE and is intended to answer questions and provide basic information about voting. The hot line will also be available from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday.

The polling place locator is at www.state.ri.us. It allows users to enter their street address and community to learn their polling place location, and it offers a link to a sample ballot.

Brown is also offering a high school curriculum about voting, public service and civic participation, among other programs.