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WINSTON-SALEM — The crowd at the Joel Coliseum Annex didn't need much priming. In response to the call of "Fired Up," the audience of about 2,000 responded "Ready to go!" as they waited for Sen. Barack Obama to begin his town hall meeting last week.

At rallies for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in North Carolina, chants of "Hil-lar-y" kept crowds tuned to a raucous lather while they waited for their candidate.

Both Democratic presidential candidates would spend 30 to 45 minutes firing up the crowd before admonishing supporters to go vote, often with directions to the nearest early voting site. But once those excited by the national campaign punched the button for their pick in the presidential race, then what?

"This is just an opinion, I think you're going to see a lot of dropoff," said North Carolina Elections Director Gary Bartlett, confirming what local election workers say they're hearing.

Dropoff happens when a person votes the top one or two positions on a ballot but leaves the rest blank. This year that means voters hoping to select the next president could take a pass on other statewide and local offices, such as races for the legislature, the Court of Appeals, lieutenant governor and state treasurer.

That was the case with Kaitlin Ritchie of Greensboro as she left early voting at the Old County Courthouse late Thursday. The presidential primary drew her to the voting booth.

As for the other races?

Not so much. Ritchie said she didn't feel comfortable voting in the down-ballot races after punching the button for Obama.

"I actually didn't vote for them because I didn't know enough," she said.

Bartlett said that as many as 32 percent of voters in prior elections have cast ballots that drop off after only a few selections.

"I think we could exceed that," he said.

The Democratic contest for the presidential nomination has stirred interest in primary voting not seen here since Republicans led by Jesse Helms saved Ronald Reagan's political career in 1976.

As of Friday morning, more than 24,000 people had voted early in Guilford County, both in person and through the mail. That compares with just more than 4,300 in 2004, the last presidential primary year. And 5.7 million people are registered to vote statewide, 600,000 more than at the same time in 2004.

But as more people come out to vote, candidates running for lesser-known statewide offices and in local races find themselves struggling for attention.

"We had to completely revise our campaign strategy," said Dan Besse, a Winston-Salem alderman who is one of four Democrats running for lieutenant governor.

Besse has been reaching out to voters at presidential campaign rallies, handing out literature.

Although it's much harder to get attention for his own race, Besse said the presidential campaign has served as an equalizer of sorts. Even though better-funded candidates can afford more television commercial time, their ads are being drowned out by candidates for president, U.S. Senate and governor. And that, he said, makes person-to-person and Internet campaigning all the more important for down-ballot races.

"That keeps me in the game as a practical matter," Besse said.

If it's difficult for Democrats in down-ballot races to get attention, pity those running in the Republican primary.

Unaffiliated voters in North Carolina can vote in either the Democratic or Republican primaries. As of late last week, four out of five unaffiliated voters chose Democratic ballots during early voting.

"Unaffiliated voters have played a significant role in past Republican primaries," said John Hood, a political expert who heads the conservative John Locke Foundation in Raleigh. With more of those voters casting Democratic ballots, the Republican primary electorate will lean more toward social and anti-tax fiscal conservatives.

"Marginally, this hurts Pat McCrory. ... He's more likely to have attracted moderate independents," Hood said, referring to the Charlotte mayor who is one of four candidates running for the Republican nomination for governor. McCrory has a reputation as the centrist of the group, and the other candidates — Salisbury lawyer Bill Graham, former justice Bob Orr and state Sen. Fred Smith — have questioned his efforts to curb tax increases and fight illegal immigration.

In particular, Smith has seen a last-minute surge in the polls.

Still, Republican turnout is expected to be robust in several counties, especially those where Republican voters outnumber Democrats and where there are competitive Republican fights for congressional seats, including the 10th and 11th districts in the western part of the state.

Davidson and Randolph counties have large Republican voter bases and could play a large role in choosing the party's statewide nominees.

But the Democratic race for the presidential nomination will be the dominant story line Tuesday, and its effects could reach low onto the ballot, even to tax referenda, such as the quarter-cent sales tax before Guilford County voters.

"Democratic voters are more likely to support taxes, even sales tax hikes," Hood said.

Obama and Clinton campaigned in the state Friday. Both candidates are splitting time between here and Indiana, the other state with a primary Tuesday. And although they are the stars of the show, even presidential candidates can struggle to get their campaign message heard.

Clinton, for example, has been building a case to win over voters and superdelegates by claiming polls show she will do better against presumptive Republican nominee John McCain in states critical to winning the general election, such as Ohio.

The problem is that attention is focused on the Indiana and North Carolina primaries right now, not polling in Ohio or other states that have already voted.

Meanwhile, Obama has found himself mired in the controversy surrounding his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. In 30 minutes he spent with North Carolina reporters Tuesday, all of the questions focused on Wright.

That was particularly problematic because he is arguing against a gas tax break that Clinton and McCain are pushing hard.

"The ads show you the problem, right?" said Allen Louden, a communications professor at Wake Forest. "Clinton can point out she's for it and he's against it, that's a relatively easy sell."

By contrast, Obama's stance relies on figures and policy positions that take time to explain.

"There are all kinds of players out there saying why this (the gas tax holiday) doesn't make sense, but those aren't going to trickle down," Louden said.

Analysts say that whatever call voters make, and however they make their choices, it's clear they view this primary as one of the most significant ever.

As A&T student Sterline Caldwell cast his vote last week, he acknowledged that the presidential race was the main draw for him, summing up the election this way:

"You only have a couple opportunities ... when you have a chance to make a difference. People died to vote."

Staff writer Jason Hardin contributed to this report.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com