CONCORD, N.H. -- New Hampshire's secretary of state said Tuesday that voter registrations show that independents outnumber Republicans and Democrats in the nation's first primary state.

Independent, or undeclared voters, make up 37 percent of the state's registered voters. Republican registration is 36 percent and Democrats number 27 percent.

In real numbers, there are 274,927 independents, 265,679 Republicans and 197,816 Democrats.

Unlike some states, where independent voters can't vote in primaries, New Hampshire independents can vote in either party's primary. The state's voters will have another choice as well: Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan, who won the New Hampshire primary in 1996 over eventual GOP nominee Bob Dole.

The candidates already knew undeclared voters were a major force in the state's Feb. 1 balloting.

Al Gore has been inviting unaffiliated voters to informal meetings, after polls showed Democratic-leaning independents tended to favor his rival, Bill Bradley.

Republican John McCain, meanwhile, has formed a separate group for independent supporters and announced he's been endorsed by nearly 200 independents.

"Senator Bradley is appealing to a lot of independents," he has said. "I am, too. So I think there may be a kind of separate contest going on for the independents."

Between the 1996 and 1998 general elections, New Hampshire Republicans lost almost 4,000 voters and Democrats lost 3,000. But Secretary of State Bill Gardner said most of the new undeclared voters are those who were not registered before.