You can call it crunch time at the Houston County Voter Registration Office.

Or put another way...

"We are kind of like fireman," says Chairman of the Houston County Board of Registrars Molly Meadows. "And this is the fire."

The deadline for voters in Houston County to register to vote is October 24th. Molly Meadows says at least 100 applications come through the mail each day. And hundreds of people are stopping by the office in person to sign up.

Ryan Denault registered Thursday. He works as a computer specialist at the Houston County Administration Building.

"I have been so busy with work and school, I just hadn't had much time," Denault said. "Finally I just found a little chance to register. And I like to participate in elections to decide what may be my future."

Here is a racial breakdown of voters who have registered from 6-3-08 through 10-1-08:

White- 2022
Black- 967
Hispanic- 28
Asian- 11
American Indian- 4
Other- 31

Here is the age breakdown of the more than 3,000 voters who registered from the same time frame:

18-29: 1109
30-44: 875
45 and up: 1060

And even though Meadows and the other two workers in the Registration Office are slammed processing applications, they are thankful for the new ways people can register outside of just coming to the office.

"Today there are other locations you can register," Meadows said. "Plus you can get the application off the Internet. So a lot of people are doing it by mail. But at one time (in the past) we had them with the office full, and backed up to the elevators with 2 or 3 lines.

Probate Judge Luke Cooley says a large number of applications are coming in from smaller municipalities. She says that shows there is interest in the runoff elections that are still taking place.

For information on registering and how to print an application online, visit
http://www.sos.state.al.us/Elections/VoterReg.aspx