At the last minute on Monday, people stood in line at City Hall looking to register to vote in the presidential election in November. It is an election the Secretary of State expects will have a massive turnout, upwards of 70 percent.

"Based on the registration efforts that have been underway for the past several months, based upon just the general interest that appears to be present in the state over the race,” said Secretary of State Jay Dardenne, “I think we're going to have a very large turnout."

In a state with 2.9 million voters, 147,891 new people have registered to vote in Louisiana since the start of this year.

"With the interest in the presidential race, we see a greater level of voter registration than we have in past years," said political analyst Greg Rigamer of GCR and Associates.

Rigamer analyzed the number of newly registered voters and when it comes to what political party they are registering with 50 percent signed up as Democrats and about 22 percent signed up as Republicans both slightly down from previous years. But by comparison, the number people signing up as independents is up from previous elections, sitting at 28 percent.

And when it comes to race, the numbers show African Americans are outpacing other groups in registering to vote. In past elections, they accounted for 30 percent of new registrations. This year they account for 45 percent. Compare that to white voters who historically account for 65 percent of new voters, but this year account for a lower number, 48 percent.

"One of the significant differences that we see with the new voter registrations, that we have a greater percentage of African Americans registering and that's clearly with interest in the Obama candidacy," Rigamer said.

But will it make a difference in how Louisiana votes in the presidential election?

While registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in the state two to one, Rigamer says Democrats in Louisiana don't always vote on party lines.

"Clearly, we have more Democrats in the state who are centrist Democrats, who are clearly capable of voting either Republican or Democratic," Rigamer said. "The new registrants, it is indeed an impressive number. But Louisiana is a very conservative state and at the end of the day, we tend to vote along conservative lines."

The number of newly registered voters are also concentrated in just handful of parishes with East Baton Rouge leading the pack followed by Orleans and Jefferson parishes.