ROCKVILLE, Maryland, Oct 13 (AFP) - An anxious crowd mobbed the election office in this Washington suburb just before 9 pm (0100 GMT Wednesday), seeking to register before the deadline to vote in the November 2 presidential election passed.
"30 seconds!" cried elections official Samuel Statland, warning that his office was about to close.
Election workers cheered when the doors closed, and a group of young people waved at a Japanese television crew filming the event.
"We've had the largest voter turnout in 10, 12 years during the past year," said Statland. "I'd say that we've had several thousand people here today."
The crowd scene capped a day that another election official described as "madness."
Americans across the country are signing up in record numbers to cast ballots for the November 2 election. With an especially tight race between Republican President George W. Bush and Democratic Senator John Kerry, both parties have been urging citizens to register to vote.
Americans of Chinese, Indian and Korean origin, and many others from Latin America, joined the throng that began lining up to register early Tuesday in Rockville, a suburb some 40 minutes from downtown Washington.
Rockville is at the heart of Maryland's Montgomery County, which is home to 108,000 Asians (12.3 percent of the county's population) and 101,000 Latinos (11.5 percent), according to the US census.
Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one in the county, said Statland, a Democratic member of the board of elections.
"All our minorities are doing well," he said. "Black voters are here, Hispanic, Asian-Americans."
Beatrice Chun, 18, will be a first time voter and she will pick Kerry over the president.
"Bush is not adequate to rule the country and Kerry will be a better ruler," said Chun, who was born in the Philippines and is of Chinese origin.
Voter registration is a local affair in the United States, conducted with different rules and deadlines in cities and counties across the country. Voters do not need to re-register unless they have moved.
Registration is now closed in many states, including the swing states of Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio -- all of which reported an increase in registration.
Maria Yepez, 42, walked into the board of elections in Rockville right before the doors closed. The hairdresser of Bolivian origin took a Spanish-language registration sheet.
"The Democratic party is the one that helps middle- and lower-class people the most," said Yepez, who will vote for Democratic Senator John Kerry rather than President George W. Bush, a Republican.
Savithri Nadmichettu, a 50-year-old pharmacy associate from south-central India, has lived in the United since 1977. He will vote for Kerry.
"I'm sick of Bush," Nadmichettu said. "He went to war without any evidence. That's why I want to vote for somebody else rather than Bush."
Michelle Ang, a 19-year-old university student whose father is from Hong Kong and mother from Taiwan, said she will vote for Kerry.
"He's a better choice," she said, adding that she opposes the war in Iraq.
A Korean woman and her son arrived at the board of elections 15 minutes after its doors shut, too late for her to register.
Her 24-year-old son said he has not decided who will get his vote.
"We have time", he said, adding that he will pick the candidate who will be a greater help to Asian-Americans and minorities in general.