Pennsylvanians - and Penn students - aren't waiting until the fall to voice their views on who should be the country's next president.
While final numbers are not yet available from the Pennsylvania State Department, it appears that voter registration has increased dramatically this year leading up to the state's April 22 primary.
Similar trends prevailed at Penn, as new registrations for the primary matched what is typical before a general election. Usually, voter registration and turnout in primaries are much lower than in a general election.
Penn for Obama, in coordination with Penn Democrats, which endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) earlier this month, has registered more than 2,400 new voters on Penn's campus over the past weeks, the group said.
In comparison, the Penn Dems registered only 300 new voters before last year's mayoral primary.
Statewide, registered Democrats in the state of over 12 million residents total more than four million for the first time.
Since the 2006 election, 84,801 new voters have registered as Democrats in the state. An additional 86,711 previously registered voters have switched their party affiliation to become Democrats thus far this year.
Wharton freshman Michael Stratton, co-president of Penn for Obama, said the new voters his group registered had varied candidate preferences and party affiliations.
He said the group "expanded exponentially" to accommodate the Obama campaign's door-to-door tactics throughout campus, in which 50 to 60 volunteers helped.
Penn Dems president and College sophomore Lauren Burdette said she did not know how the group's effort this year compared to past presidential primaries.
Recent polls show Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) with a strong lead in the state, leaving the Obama campaign to focus on bringing in independent and Republican voters, who have favored him in other states, to register as Democrats.
In Pennsylvania, onl.y Democrats can vote in the Democratic primary.
But as Clinton and Obama continue to disagree on the campaign trail, so too have their supporters in how to target this election's newest voters.
"Our best target area is campus," Stratton said, echoing young-voter trends that have favored Obama in every primary state this year.
Penn for Hillary, however, said it decided against focusing on on-campus registration efforts to "maximize their impact," said the group's communications director Julie Siegel, a College junior and former DP Spin editor.
"Four groups using the same tactics doesn't make sense," she said. "We wanted to reach out to other voters."
Last week, Penn for Hillary supervised the creation of a Facebook group that helped educate students on how and where to register to vote.
The group also sent students throughout the Philadelphia area to register voters who otherwise might not be reached.
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