To show his support, Mauro helped kick off Iowa Public Interest Research Group's statewide 2008 New Voters Project young voter registration drive at Iowa State University on Wednesday.

According to Mauro, 18- to 24-year-olds added more than 40,000 new names to Iowa's registered voter rolls after showing up in record numbers for the Iowa caucuses in January and the primary election in June.

The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement says youth turnout rates in the Iowa caucuses more than tripled compared to 2000 levels, and that's the momentum Mauro wants to see carried into the November general election, he said.

Mauro said Iowa PIRG's across-the-state campaign to register 90 percent of college students to vote is critical to carry the young voter surge forward.

"They must show up at the polls in November," he said. "But it takes work to turn a registration drive into votes, and that's why we're doing everything we can to make registering and voting as easy and accessible as possible."

Aly Peeler, president of Students for Iowa PIRG, said getting students to register to vote is just the first step in her organization's comprehensive campaign to get students all the way to the polls.

"We want to make voting as accessible as registration," she said. "But we're not just focused on getting voters. We want students to be informed voters."

Kathleen Cogan, Student PIRG's lead campus organizer for Iowa and Ohio, said Iowa PIRG's New Voters Project builds on a long history of time-tested and academically reviewed methods for nonpartisan, young voter mobilization.

In addition to establishing cell phone "text out the vote" efforts on campus, the campaign will initiate a massive drive to register students through a newly launched online voter registration tool at www.studentvote.org.

Peeler said Iowa PIRG is doing everything in its power to make sure student voices are heard.

"We have momentum we want to carry into November," she said. "And we want politicians to know we're a force to be reckoned with."

Mauro said it's his job to make voting as easy as possible for all Iowans while safeguarding the integrity of the process. College students can register to vote in the county they attend school, for example, he said.

"Be clear, it cancels your registration in your home county, but it makes it easy for you to vote without having to make a trip home," he said.

To demonstrate how easy it is to register to vote, Mauro concluded the Iowa PIRG event by helping an ISU student complete the voter registration form.