Jimmy Carter was running for President the last time North Carolina voters supported a Democrat. For the past 32 years, Democrats have written the state off as a GOP win.

Not even Bill Clinton held enough clout in the Tarheel State to win a majority there. But polls are showing that Senator Barack Obama might be the first democrat in more than three decades to win North Carolina’s 15 electoral votes. And that just might give the presidency to the Democratic Senator from Illinois.

In the latest Fox News/Ramussen Poll, Obama is leading Senator John McCain by one percentage point in North Carolina. A poll conducted two weeks ago shows Obama with a much bigger lead by 3 percentage points. It’s close, but if you consider McCain was up by six percentage points in August and still held a three percentage point advantage just a month ago, there’s no denying that John McCain has a fight on his hands in The Tarheel State.

Political experts on both sides of the fence say there’s a record number of new voters in North Carolina. In fact, the state reports more than 600,000 people have registered in the state, many of them motivated to vote during the heated primary between Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton last May. But there continues to be a new surge of registered voters in the last few weeks as the race between McCain and Obama heats up. We talked to a McCain spokesperson, an Obama Spokesperson, the State Board of Elections, the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections and a political science professor at Davidson College. All agree that this swell of new voters are coming from North Carolina’s five urban counties (Durham, Forsyth, Mecklenburg, Wake and Guilford.) They are majority democrat, a large percent is African American and many of them are young.

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I managed to get time with Michael Dickerson, the director of the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections in Charlotte. The man barely has time to sit down right now. His office is a literal beehive as workers sort through and verify voter registration forms. Walking alongside him from office to office, we could see his staff busy navigating stacks of mailtubs stuffed full of voter registration forms. They must check and verify the forms before election day. “I expect this will be a record breaking number for people voting in this county for this election,” Dickerson agreed with the state board of elections on who a large number of these new voters are. “What really jumps out is the spike in youth registration. The 18-35 year old numbers are so much more than they have been in the previous two presidential years.”

Many pollsters and political experts are shocked at the number of young voters who are suddenly showing an interest in politics. History shows that most young people tend to be apathetic and simply not interested in politics. But this year, something has changed. On the campuses of two North Carolina colleges we found students going door to door to talk about politics, organizing rallies and holding voter registration drives. It appears that the 18-35 year old group is lining up to sign up and by a huge margin, they are backing Obama. Paul Dixon is 19 years old, lives in Charlotte and was registering to vote between classes. “It’s my first time to vote and I think it’s time to voice my opinion and I feel our country is at a downfall and it needs to come up.” Other students registering alongside Dixon say the financial crisis is a big concern and the major reason they intend to turn the tables in North Carolina. “I need to get out there, personally I think Obama’s views fit me,” says Andrew Howes.

But many question the seriousness and the ability to follow through from this young block of voters. Dickerson says voters get more reliable as they get older and those over the age of 50 tend to vote in almost every election. “The real question is, will they turn up and be first time voters in Mecklenburg County,” Dickerson says. “That’s the true question and we will find that out on November 5th after the election.”

Ambassador Mark Erwin agrees. He has served as the US liaison to three African countries at one point in his career and lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. He’s a democrat and helped run Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign here. But when Obama won the Democratic Presidential nomination, Ambassador Erwin is now supporting John McCain. Erwin was surprised to see Obama gaining strength in North Carilina. He attributes the large number of new voters to the Obama campaign’s well-run voter registration drive before the primary and during the general election. But Erwin believes all these new voters, most of them saying they support Obama, will not actually show up to vote. “Getting those people to stay focused and go back to the polls, especially younger voters, they just typically get distracted, doing other things and get busy and forget.” He says McCain’s more mature supporters are loyal voters, so he predicts the Senator from Arizona will still win North Carolina, despite what the polls say today.