ANDERSON — With two and a half weeks until time runs out to register to vote, the Madison County voter registration office is working hard.

“We are having quite a few applications come in,” said Dena Willis, Republican voter registration board member. “We are getting a lot of people coming to the counter registering.”

The office has seen 591 newly registered voters and 1,131 voters who updated their address since Aug. 1, Willis said. Madison County has 91,197 registered voters with 500 more pending as of Wednesday afternoon, up slightly from 90,627 registered voters in the May primary.

“This year is different,” Willis said. “Being a presidential election, a lot more people come out during a presidential election year. This year, more people are interested in what is going on and want to be involved.”

With a seemingly tight race between Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and Republican nominee John McCain, the county has been inundated with voter registration applications from all avenues.

“We have them coming from the BMV, we have people coming to the counter also,” Willis said. “Each party headquarters will have people come to their headquarters, and candidates are out registering people also.

“They’re just coming from everywhere.”

The last day to register to vote is Oct. 6, when the county voter registration office will be open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. to accommodate last-minute registrants.

“Some people just get busy and they do forget,” Willis said. “As soon as they get in here, the better off we are.”

Madison County Republican Party Chairwoman Darlene Likens said all the Republican candidates and their committees were going door to door to register county residents to vote. The party also has had registration cards at its booth at fairs and festivals and plans to have some at Frankton Heritage Days this weekend.

“We do (voter registrations) daily,” Likens said. “That effort will just be continuous.”

Leaders of the Madison County Democratic Party could not be reached for comment on their voter registration efforts.

Likens hadn’t seen any trends in types of voters registering for the November general election, citing those from all walks of life who were more becoming interested in voicing their political opinion this year.

“I’ve just seen them all ages from young ones to middle-aged to senior citizens,” she said.

The voter registration office will try to have all voter registration applications processed by Oct. 15 in plenty of time for the election. Registered voters will receive a card in the mail confirming their registration and informing them of their polling place. On Election Day, voters only need to bring an Indiana-issued photo ID with them to vote.

A change in Indiana law made it possible for the justice system to gather jury pools from BMV and tax records, instead of just voter registration records, a misconception that has kept many from registering to vote in the past, Willis said.

Statewide, Indiana surpassed 500,000 new or updated registered voters in 2008, according to the Secretary of State’s Web site. The state has about 4.4 million voters.

---------

Ready to register?

Those interested in registering can do so at the voter registration office in the Madison County Government Center, 16 E. Ninth St., or at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Online forms can be found at the Indiana Secretary of State’s Web site at in.gov/sos.

Question about your status or polling place?

Visit indianavoters.com or call (866) IN-1-VOTE (461-8683) to access the statewide voter registration database. Locally, call the voter registration office at (765) 641-9657.