More unaffiliated voters registered in 2008

Chris Kromm says that the number of unaffiliated voters is growing.

The executive director of the Institute for Southern Studies says a closer look at voters who have registered in the last three months shows that a plurality are Democrats.

In a post on Facing South, he notes that 46 percent of the newly registered voters are Democrats, 37 percent are unaffiliated, and 17 percent are Republicans.

Meantime, 63 percent of the growth in North Carolina Democrats are black voters, who make up 45 percent of registered Democrats and 20 percent of the overall electorate.

Also, the number of voters who identify as Hispanic as grown by 10 percent, and "other" by 4 percent.

"Those two groups still represent a relatively small share of the state's voters -- 134,000 state-wide, or just over 2% of North Carolina voters. But in a close primary, that could make a difference," he writes.

A recent report by the Pew Research Center found the number of self-identified Republicans had dropped significantly since 2004.

Correction: The numbers in Kromm's post were wrong and have since been corrected.