DEMOCRATS WINNING THE "NEW VOTERS" GAME IN OHIO? Various polls of "likely voters" keep spotting Kerry a step or two behind Bush in Ohio. But the New York Times reports that those pollable LVs may have lots of unlikely company on November 2 -- a horde of new, mostly Democratic registrants.

The Times examined registration from Jan. 1 to July 31 in a sample of counties that included seven of the state's nine largest, along with some smaller rural and suburban counties...

In rock-ribbed Republican areas - 103 ZIP codes, many of them rural and suburban areas, that voted by two to one or better for George W. Bush in 2000 - 35,000 new voters have registered, a substantial increase over the 28,000 that registered in those areas in the first seven months of 2000...

But in heavily Democratic areas - 60 ZIP codes mostly in the core of big cities like Cleveland, Dayton, Columbus and Youngstown that voted two to one or better against Mr. Bush - new registrations have more than tripled over 2000, to 63,000 from 17,000.

Here's the Greater Cleveland Voter Registration Coalition.