Columbus, Ohio (AP) -- Ohio's Elections chief says the state has registered about 666,000 new voters since the start of 2008.

That brings the total to 8.2 million registered Ohio voters going into the November election. The deadline to register to vote expired on Monday.

Ohio now has roughly 211,000 more registered voters than it did for the 2004 election.

Cuyahoga County -- the state's largest -- saw its voting rolls increase by about 123,000 voters since Jan. 1 to a total of roughly 1.1 million. It was the largest increase among Ohio counties.

The voter registration surge was propelled by a presidential election year that began with the highly contested primary fight between democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All rights Reserved.)