"This is exactly what we needed to do to change the electorate in Virginia in order to put Sen. Obama in a position where he could win the state," said Steve Hildebrand, Obama's deputy campaign manager.
In Nevada, another Republican state that Obama is trying to move into the Democratic column, Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 80,000, according to figures posted by the state in September, before the voter registration deadline last Saturday. Four years ago, Republicans held a registration edge of 4,431.
Democratic registration has ballooned in Pennsylvania, presenting a challenge to Republicans who hoped to swing the state to their column. Obama's party now outnumbers Republicans by nearly 1.15 million registered voters. In the 2004 election, the margin was about 580,000; in 2000, it was 486,000.
Registration numbers may help guide campaign strategy in the sprint to election day. For example, Obama's camp has said that if it does not meet registration targets in certain states, it may not compete there as aggressively.
Georgia may be one of those cases. Obama aides say the campaign has 53 paid staff in Georgia, down from at least 75 last month and more than 100 at an earlier stage.
"If we're not achieving the kind of numbers we're trying to achieve, and we don't think it's winnable at that point, it's definitely going to affect our advertising, staffing and everything else," Hildebrand said.
McCain campaign aides caution that too much can be made of raw voter registration numbers.
Consider Florida: In 2004, President Bush won the state by more than 381,000 votes, even though Republicans trailed in the voter registration count that year by nearly 368,000.
Obama is working the state hard. Wednesday, as students lined up by the hundreds to see former President Clinton speak at the University of Central Florida, Obama volunteers scanned them one by one, making sure they were registered.
Obama has made gains; the Democrats' lead in voter registration has grown by 130,000 since 2004. Still, that may not be enough. The share of Florida voters aligning with each party is about the same.
About 41% of Florida voters are registered as Democrats, the same as four years ago, while the portion who are Republicans has dropped 1 percentage point, to 37%.
In the end, Republican officials point out, victory hinges not on how many voters each campaign registers but on which campaign gets more of its voters to the polls.
