The last leg of the presidential election campaign process picked up speed Tuesday when more than 300 students took their last chance to register to vote.

The College Republicans said they registered more than 200 students in four hours. The Young Democrats reported registering about 140 students. The groups combined gave about 60 absentee ballot request forms.

“This is the most successful voter registration drive I’ve ever been a part of in College Republicans,” said Kristin Bernhard, a senior from Roswell. “We were there from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and stayed until 2:20 to get the last few people. They were literally coming as we were packing up.”

For the next 28 days, College Republicans, Young Democrats and Students for Barack Obama plan to encourage those they’ve registered to vote. Jaiah Scott, director of Students for Barack Obama, said their final count for registering students during the past few weeks will be around 6,500 – the group’s official campaign goal.

“The next month will consist of getting out the vote efforts and doing what we can to make sure those who registered actually vote,” he said. “Phone calls, friendly reminders in flyers, giving rides. There are obviously a lot of strategies, but we have a month to figure out how to get them to vote, and that starts tonight at midnight.”

The College Republicans are “looking to key races at local, state and national levels to turn out as many people as possible through phone banking and distributing signs,” Bernhard said.

The group will work with Representatives Paul Broun and Bill Cowsert in the Athens area and will continue to send about 30 students to Warner Robins to help Rep. Rick Goddard in the 8th district – “routinely one of the top competitive races in the country,” she said.

The group will host a tailgate with Cowsert during this weekend’s football game against Tennessee and has visited 20 fraternity and sorority houses in the last week to push voting efforts, said Ian Gunn, a member of the College Republicans.

“We’ll probably knock door-to-door for Sen. Bill Cowsert and get people to absentee vote a lot.”

The Young Democrats and Students for Barack Obama have worked together to register voters, and now the goal for Young Democrats is to encourage students to vote for Democrats across the ticket, said Louis Elrod, president of Young Democrats.

“One of the things we’ve focused on is bringing in three or four candidates for local and state office into our meetings so members have a better idea of the local campaign and don’t forget people down the ticket,” he said. “We have events planned for on and around campus during the two weeks leading up to Election Day.”

Young Democrats will continue to help Sherry Jackson, running for state Senate district 46; Tim Riley, running for state Senate district 47 and Jim Martin, running for U.S. Senate.

“Campus outreach has been partisan, but we’re wanting students to be more aware of the opportunities to have their voices be heard no matter where they hit on the political spectrum,” said Jason Evans, a member of the College Republicans.

“So many are energized about the election, even if apolitical.”