On Oct. 7, a month before the Nov. 4 election, the number of Johnston voters stood at 97,960. Thousands of those voters will be casting ballots for the first time in Johnston County.

“The latest big growth spurt really didn’t happen until the last two years,” said Leigh Anne Price, supervisor of elections in Johnston.

In fact, Price said, only 705 new voters registered between the 2004 presidential election and the May 2006 primaries. Since then, 10,899 new voters have been added to the rolls. That’s an 11 percent jump in about 16 months. Among registered voters in Johnston County, 39,349 are Democrat, 37,397 are Republican and 21,192 are unaffiliated.

The leaders of both major political parties in Johnston say the county’s rapid growth has obviously played a large role in the voter surge. But that doesn’t mean the presidential race between U.S. Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and John McCain of Arizona hasn’t made an impact.

“There’s no question that both the Republican and Democratic candidates for president have done as much as they can to register as many voters as they can during this process,” said Rudy Renfer, president of the Johnston GOP. “As a registered voter myself, I’m excited to see more people becoming interested, because voter apathy has never done this country any good.”

Sharon Castleberry, president of the Johnston Democratic Party, agreed. Castleberry said she and other local Democratic operatives had been taking in registration forms at a lightning pace.

“It seems like we’re taking in anywhere from one to a dozen on a daily basis,” she said. “From my standpoint, having been active for the last eight years, I think that’s extremely significant. I think the energy of the national campaign is driving it.”

Renfer said it would be interesting to see how many voters show up at the polls on Nov. 4 and whether they continue to vote in the future. “We certainly hope people will vote, but voter registration does not necessarily translate into voter participation,” he said. “It will be interesting to see if participation increases at the same rate as registration has over the past few years.”