Shelagh Mollohan of Derry is working at Boston University to get students to register to vote before the presidential election.
But the 19-year-old freshman isn't about to change her registration out of the Granite State.
"It's going to be close in New Hampshire," Mollohan said. "I hate to say that your vote doesn't matter, but in Massachusetts, it's going to be the Democrats that are going to take it."
Mollohan isn't alone in her excitement to cast an important vote in the upcoming election.
New residents, newly turned 18-year-olds and older, and other first-time voters are making their way into town clerk offices to get registered for the Nov. 4 general election. Many clerks say their voter rolls are growing more rapidly than they have for any other election.
Pelham has registered an additional 71 voters since the state primary on Sept. 9, and Windham has added about 100 new voters. Londonderry has averaged five new voters a day, and Atkinson has signed up two or three a day.
Hampstead Town Clerk Patricia Curran said she's had so many new people register in the past two weeks than she can't guess at the number.
"We're actually trying to encourage everyone to come in and do it here because we're expecting a huge, huge voter turnout - 85 to 90 percent," she said. "It will save them from standing in line."
The war and the failing economy are among the issues that will drive a fairly high turnout — possibly 70 percent — statewide, according to Andy Smith, a political scientist at the University of New Hampshire.
"Couple that with a close electorate and two popular candidates in the state, and that will turn turnout up," he said.
Since the 2004 campaign season, the number of Democrats in the state has been on the rise. Between that primary and this year's primary, about 66,000 new Democrats registered. Between the 2004 General Election and this year's primary, 37,000 of those Democrats registered, while the Republicans picked up less than 4,000 new party-affliated voters.
The statewide electorate makeup is reflected even in these small southern towns. Newton Town Clerk Mary-Jo McCullough has seen the scales balance since 2004.
"This used to be a huge Republican town," she said. "But we've had an influx of Massachusetts people, mostly Democrats and undeclared."
Smith estimated about 40 percent of undeclared voters vote Democrat and 30 percent vote Republican. With a more evenly divided electorate, things like TV ads and mailings could a significant difference on either side, he said.
That's why Mollohan signed up for an absentee ballot to cast from Boston University.
"Students from really blue or really red states, they feel like their vote doesn't count as much," she said. "Unfortunately, I don't get to go to the polls, but I'm really excited to see what happens."
