With 49 days until midterm elections, efforts are being made to register young voters by the thousands.

NextGen America, a progressive political group, has registered more than 10,000 people from across 36 different campuses in Iowa — 1,800 alone being from Iowa State.

“We typically support progressives candidates, but our goal is to get as many young people voting no matter who it is they are voting for,” said Mara Kealey, an Ames field organizer for NextGen. “They need to register so we can have a government more representative of young people’s values.”

NextGen registers people to vote in areas all around: They went to the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Game, they find people on campus, and they oftentimes station themselves outside of the Agora near Parks Library, where they hand out food and voter registration forms.

Kealey said NextGen also has a presence on social media, but their main methods to get people to vote include being in the field, on the ground and what she called “just being there.”

“Young people deserve to be heard, the issues we face don’t come up as often in elections,” Kealey said. “So our goal is to be wherever students are … We want to reach out to the students and have those important discussions on the issues that get people to the polls.”

As Iowa State has the most students and young people out of any other campus in Iowa, Kealey said they have an extra focus on their efforts at Iowa State, but they still focus on smaller schools around Iowa that could potentially present more people who want to register.

Kealey said these smaller campuses are areas campaigns have ignored in the past, so it makes those areas potentially more important to register and send out to the polls.

“Just like at Iowa State, all of those students deserve to have their voices heard as well,” Kealey said.

Kealey said interest in the election among young people was at a high point this year, largely due to their efforts on the grounds and policies that weren’t in the interest of young people. These policies included raised tuition rates at public universities, mid-year budget cuts and an overall lack in funding for education.

“Young people are issue-based voters,” Kealey said. “I really think people are going to turn out to the polls this November and young people are going to win.”