Charleston, SC - Less than four weeks until the presidential election and more South Carolina voters are expected to turnout than ever before.

A greater diversity of people are signing up to vote and it's certainly raising eyebrows, but will it be enough to turn this red state, blue? 

New generations of voters are heading out to the polls.

"You're sitting at a bar late night, and people are talking politics, rather than talking sports, rather than talking girls, people are talking about politics," said College of Charleston student, Simon Villa.
 
More black voters are talking about it as well. In South Carolina, they're registered to vote at nearly twice the rate of whites over the past 10 months, making some wonder whether age and color could turn this traditionally red state to blue.

College of Charleston Political Science Professor Bill Moore tells us and his class if it can happen.

“I don’t think it's going to make this state democratic, this is a solid republican state,” said Moore. “If you look at South Carolina, there hasn’t been a close presidential election in South Carolina since 1980."

Professor Moore's student, Simon Villa isn’t seeing eye to eye with his teacher.

“I disagree with the professor because I’m seeing a lot of African American friends of mine that are getting interested, where they don’t care, and now they want to say I want to participate, I want to do as much as I can, and that enthusiasm is what drives politics," said Villa.

Even those hoping for a John McCain (web|news|bio) victory are willing to see their candidate lose in the name of participation.

“I’m happy to see the response because for a long time, we’ve let politicians do whatever they want to up there and I’m hoping with more people getting involved, that we’ll actually see change," said Johnnie Stanfield.
 
As of Monday, 196,000 voters have registered in Charleston County, 10,000 more than the 2004 presidential election.