500,000 expected to register

With California's new importance in the presidential primaries and two dynamic sets of major party candidates, voter registration is booming statewide. Patridcia Farrell Aidem in the Daily News.

Aided by feverish registration drives - including several in the San Fernando Valley - there are well over 500,000 new voters in California as Tuesday's registration deadline approaches for the Feb. 5 "Super Duper Tuesday" primary.

"It's a historic election," said Kate Fullmar, spokeswoman for California Secretary of State Debra Bowman.

"For the first time since 1952, there's neither a sitting president nor vice president in the running. And with the earlier primary this year and the field still wide open, California has a chance to be a player."