Voter Registrations At Record Levels

Voter registration levels here have hit what is likely a near-term record level -- a possible sign that Sen. Barack Obama's hometown is preparing to give him a huge send-off in the Nov. 4 presidential election.

In Chicago, 1,474,208 people were registered to vote as of Wednesday, with Board of Elections staffers still processing a final batch of late registrants that "conservatively will add another 5,000," a board spokesman said. That would be a last-minute increase of 80,000 since Sept. 30, a spike that board Chairman Langdon Neal termed "nothing short of monumental."

The new total of about 1.48 million would be the highest in the city since 1992, when the total was 1.524 million, about 45,000 higher than now.

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