Officials urge registered voters to go to the polls in November

Intro: Missouri voter registration ended Wednesday with more than 4 million Missourians registered.

Abigail Grimmett (GRIMM-IT) has more from Jefferson City.

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OutCue: SOC County officials have until October 15 to process the remaining voter registration applications. Spokesperson for the Secretary of State, Laura Egerdal (EGG-ER-DALL), said the number of registered voters has been steadily increasing.

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Description: We've had over 220,00 new registered voters since the beginning of the year and an additional 500,000 people who updated their name address to make sure they can vote in this election.

Egerdal said these numbers are expected to increase once registrations are processed. Election authorities in St. Charles County said the uncertainty of who will win this year's presidential election contributed to the increase in voter registration. According to the Secretary of State's office, there are more than 4 million registered voters in Missouri, up more than 60 thousand from 2006. Reporting from the State Capitol, I'm Abigail Grimmett.

Intro: An increase in voters has kept election officials across the state busy during the final days to register.

Abigail Grimmett (GRIMM-IT) has more from Jefferson City.

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OutCue: SOC Missouri voters were racing to register in time to be eligible to participate in the November 4 election. Rich Chrismer, the election authority for St. Charles county, said registering to vote is only the first step.

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Description: Registering to vote is only the beginning. If you don't exercise your right to vote, then you're kind of wasting your time. In this county, we don't really have that problem especially in the presidential election.

Both Democrats and Republicans have been promoting voter registration across the state. Barack Obama's campaign set a goal of registering 75,000 Missourians before October 8 and will now focus on voter turnout. John McCain's campaign did not set a registration goal, but a Republican Party spokesperson said after encouraging people to register, they too, will focus on getting people to the polls. According to the Secretary of State's office more than 4 million Missourians are now registered and voter turnout could be as high as 80 percent of those registered. Reporting from the State Capitol, I'm Abigail Grimmett.

Intro: Voter registration for the November 4 election has come to a close and officials are gearing up for a high voter turnout.

Abigail Grimmett (GRIMM-IT) has more from Jefferson City.

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OutCue: SOC County officials have until October 15 to process the remaining registration applications, and training for election judges and volunteers began Wednesday. Spokesperson for the Secretary of State's office, Laura Egerdal (EGG-ER-DALL) said an exciting election year leads to a higher voter turnout.

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Description: We haven't issued a prediction for Missouri yet, nationally turnout has been predicted as high as 80 percent by the Federal Election Assistance Commission so we've been planning for turnout as high as 80 percent in Missouri.

St. Charles county had a 90 percent voter turnout in 2004 - the highest in the Nation. St. Charles election authorities said a 92 percent turnout is expected this year and have ordered four school districts to close on election day. The schools will be used as polling places. Reporting from the State Capitol, I'm Abigail Grimmett.