They put it off till the last minute, but thousands of Utahns refused to let Monday's rain and snow stop them from registering to vote.

Monday was the last day for voter registration statewide. And in keeping with the trend in a year that has seen dramatic increases in voter registration, county clerks' offices and satellite registration sites were busy with long lines of would-be voters — right up to the 8 p.m. deadline.

"I think the issues kind of called me out to vote this year," Salt Lake City resident Brad Smith said Monday evening after registering to vote at the Salt Lake County Government Center.

Smith said he has voted in the past, but on more of an on-again, off-again basis. This year, the stakes are too high not to vote, he said, calling the economy and job losses his biggest concerns.

In Salt Lake County, about 4,000 people registered to vote Monday at the government center and the county's 28 satellite sites. Friday, the only other day when satellite registration was available, 4,959 people registered.

Davis County Clerk Steve S. Rawlings said Monday's numbers were not yet available, but there is no question the numbers will be "unprecedented," he said. In the last month, Davis County has seen about 15,000 new voter registrations compared with about 650 in 2000, Rawlings said.

And by 7 p.m. in Utah County, elections officials had processed 8,000 registration forms Monday alone, elections coordinator Kris Swensen said. One satellite registration site brought in 200 new registrations in just 30 minutes, and several satellite sites ran out of application forms and had to wait for new copies to arrive.

Statewide numbers were not available Monday evening, but by Oct. 19 there were 1.2 million Utahns registered to vote — 69,000 more than in the 2002 general election. With daily registration numbers in the thousands in Salt Lake County alone, there could be as many as 100,000 more Utah voters this year — if not more.

Absentee voters can cast their early ballots at their county clerks' offices, or they can vote by mail. However, mail-in voting requires an application to be sent to the county clerk's office. It must arrive at the office by Friday — but again, Yocom said, the sooner the better. The actual absentee ballot must be postmarked no later than Nov. 1 and must arrive at the clerk's office by Nov. 9.

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