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OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma voter registration surged by nearly 30,000 between Jan. 15 and Feb. 5, the last date to sign up or switch parties before the March 1 presidential primary.

That figure does not include another 8,301 people already registered to vote who changed party affiliation during the same time period.

The new registrations increase the statewide total by only 1.5 percent, but observers say the surge is significant because of trends it might signal.

“My (telephone) call volume has been more than it normally is on Election Day,” said Bryan Dean with the Oklahoma State Election Board.

“We had 12,000 registrations come in the week before the deadline and another 10,000 the week after that had been taken before the deadline. That’s 10 times our normal volume,” Dean said.

Bill Shapard, president of SoonerPoll.com, said he tracks such things closely because those trends can affect polling.

The increased volume, particularly among Republicans, could translate to greater enthusiasm and a higher than usual turnout. If that enthusiasm is concentrated behind one candidate, it can throw off the voter profile models that pollsters use to construct their polls.