Time is running out for a student activist organization trying to reach its goal of registering 1,000 young voters in time to cast ballots for local elections on Nov. 8.

ActivUs set its registration goal several weeks ago, but, as of Thursday afternoon, the group was still several hundred registrations short, and citizens must register by Friday evening to be eligible to vote in the local elections.

“Right now, we’re not at our goal, but we’ll be pushing a ton in the last two days before the deadline,” said Mara Spooner, ActivUs president.

ActivUs member Henry Alliger, senior in animal science, said group members are doubling their efforts so the organization can reach its goal.

“Right now, we’re at about 350,” Alliger said on Thursday. “But we’ve been registering between 25 and 50 people per hour today.

“It’s going to be hard work, but we’re looking to get this done,” Alliger said.

Spooner, senior in anthropology, said she agreed that the group could achieve its goal.

“It’s realistic,” she said. “It’ll take some work, but it can be done.”

She said ActivUs members, who have been canvassing campus, may start going door-to-door Friday to make sure students are registered to vote locally.

Should ActivUs reach its mark, Story County Auditor Mary Mosiman said it would be one of the most dramatic registration increases she has seen.

“The largest single-day increases we see is usually between 300 and 400,” Mosiman said.

These dramatic spikes, she said, usually occur before general elections that involve national races, rather than the local elections like those in November.

Of the nearly 57,000 registered voters in Story County, she said 15,000 are between the ages of 18 and 24.

“I’m going to assume most of those younger voters are ISU students,” Mosiman said. “The increase of another 1,000 would be quite significant.”