The College Democrats and Republicans are working to secure last-minute registrations for their respective parties with the deadline only hours away.
Tomorrow is the last day to register to vote for the 2005 election cycle.
The Nov. 8 elections will determine a number of local positions, including district attorney and city controller.
The positions of judge of elections and inspector of elections are also up for grabs. Several Penn students are running for these seats.
College sophomore and Vice President of the Penn Democrats Nathan Hake said his organization has already registered about 200 students in Philadelphia.
College senior and President of the College Republicans Kristina Leone said she is unsure of exactly how many students her group has registered so far.
Leone did say, however, that the organization has been successful in its efforts.
"The two biggest things are getting people who are registered elsewhere to register in Pennsylvania and getting new people to register, especially freshmen," Leone said.
Though Hake and Leone agreed that this year's turnout is unlikely to match the turnout for the 2004 presidential election, Leone said there is still widespread enthusiasm for the cause.
"Especially considering the fact that this isn't a big election, I've been surprised at the number of people we have ... to help us register voters," she said.
Hake said voting in local elections is necessary to boost the power of the student vote.
"Politicians in large part ignore students because there aren't that many votes there," Hake said. "If students voted in the numbers that they can ... we would have a very loud and very profound voice."
College junior Dean Panayides is running for judge of elections in the 21st division of the 27th ward, which includes Harnwell, Mayer Hall and Stouffer Annex.
He is going door-to-door in an attempt to register voters.
"I feel great about getting people to register to vote because being a judge of elections is fine, but if there is no one to vote, you are not really serving a purpose," Panayides said. "You don't want to be sitting at the poll station only for two people on Election Day."
Leone said her organization has primarily been registering students at group meetings.
Hake said the Penn Democrats will be registering new voters on Locust Walk tomorrow until about 3 p.m.
