CORNELIUS With many eyes on North Carolina during the presidential election, Republican leaders from three neighboring states pledged Saturday to do what they can to help the party win in the Tar Heel state this fall.

They promised to offer volunteers to staff phone banks, reach out to voters through social media, or participate in other efforts to help drum up support for former Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential bid and that of other GOP candidates on the ballot.

“We see the impact of your state in this election,” said Lin Bennett, first vice chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party. “We understand that this administration needs to go and you can be a big part of that.”

Bennett said her state’s GOP chair has promised to send at least 1,000 volunteers to North Carolina for get-out-the vote efforts. More than 500 people have signed up so far, she said.

On Saturday, party officials from Georgia and Tennessee said they, too, stand ready to help.

The remarks came during a grand-opening ceremony for a GOP Victory Office in Cornelius. In all, the party has opened 20 offices in the state. Another will open Monday in Mooresville; others may follow.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said the party expects North Carolina to “pave the way to save this country and fire Barack Obama.”

Priebus said President Barack Obama has not kept promises he made during the last election and is divisive. He panned Obama’s attacks on his Republican challenger, saying he believes “that this president has a problem with the American dream.”

North Carolina is among a dozen so-called battleground states this year. Many pundits and campaigns are glued to polls trying to measure the temperament of voters in the states.

A new survey from the conservative-leaning Rasmussen Reports shows Romney currently has a five-point edge over Obama in North Carolina. In the poll released Thursday, 49 percent of likely voters said they’d support the former governor over the president.

But another poll also released Thursday shows Obama with a 10-point lead nationally over Romney. The president’s lead was more narrow – only a four-point edge – in the battleground states in the Pew Research Center poll.

The Republican Party has announced other efforts to drum up support for candidates. This weekend, for example, volunteers went door to door to talk with voters during the GOP’s “Super Saturday” grass-roots campaign.

But some Democrats say the GOP’s get-out-the-vote blitz may be too little, too late.

The “Democrats’ ground game advantage in North Carolina is well-known and unparalleled – our network of grass-roots volunteers are working across this state to register voters and engage new supporters each day,” said Jamie Crain, spokeswoman for the North Carolina Democratic Party.

“Today’s announcement from the RNC proves they know just how far behind they are. North Carolina voters won’t be fooled by Republican attempts to disguise Mitt Romney’s plan to raise taxes on the middle class and put millionaires and billionaires first.”