For two years, the largest-ever army of volunteers fanned out across Harris County, visiting churches, mosques, festivals, high schools, concerts, seminars and street corners, all in anticipation of Tuesday, the last day to register to vote in the November election.

As registration closed, Harris County's voter roster had grown by more than 6 percent since 2014, the steepest increase in 16 years. More than 323,890 new names have been added, bringing the county voter roll to more than 2.2 million.

Harris County is not alone. The Texas Secretary of State's office two weeks ago reported the addition of more than 1 million registered voters across the state.

"The growth is out of proportion of what we have traditionally encountered," said Doug Ray, the assistant county attorney overseeing voter registration.

That happened largely thanks to the 4,130 deputized volunteer voter registrars who earned their stripes at 222 official training seminars held at colleges, schools, convention centers, office buildings and more over the last two years.

One registrar, Maria Villenas, still was at work Tuesday afternoon. The 47-year-old staff civic engagement lead for the national group Mi Familia Vota was working the lunch hour at the University of Houston student center, armed with a clipboard and a bag of pamphlets, offering passersby a chance to register. Most waved her off, but in less than an hour she registered 10 new potential voters.

More Information By the numbers 2.2 million Number of registered voters in Harris County. 22 percent Growth in registered voters with Spanish surnames between July 2012 and July 2016. 10 percent Growth in registered voters with non-Spanish surnames in same period.

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"We all need to be at the table when it comes to U.S. elections," she told the students. "We are all part of the U.S."

Eager to participate

Mi Familia Vota organizers say this election cycle, which has seen Hispanic people put at the center of some vicious debate, has inspired a boom in participation.

"I have seen something I have never seen," said Carlos Duarte, Texas director for Mi Familia Vota. "Which is, people approaching us with the clear intention to register. In the past, we would have to approach them and explain to them why this is important."

In recent months in the Houston area, the group has set up voter registration booths at high schools, community colleges, festivals, fairs and church services. It even partnered with several taco trucks to distribute registration forms. The group's local volunteers turned in 2,700 voter registration forms this year and handed out about 1,000 more.

Mariana Sanchez is chief operating officer for Bonding Against Adversity Inc., which helps legal residents become citizens, then encourages them to become deputized voter registrars.

"Everybody is really aware that they want to participate in this election," she said.

That is just the tip of a years-long trend that has seen Hispanic voters registering at the fastest rate of any demographic. According to figures from the Harris County Clerk's office, the number of registered voters with Spanish surnames grew 22 percent between July 2012 and July 2016, while the number the number of voters with non-Spanish surnames grew 10 percent.

"There is an indication that Hispanics were registering to vote at a higher rate than non-Spanish surnames," said Hector DeLeon, who leads voter outreach at the county clerk's office.

By October, people with Spanish surnames accounted for 21 percent of Harris County's registered voters.

Hispanic groups, however, were not the only ones reporting heightened enthusiasm this election cycle.

"At least for the Muslim community, we just have not seen this kind of turnout ever before," said Nabila Mansoor, who leads voter registration outreach for Emerge USA, an Islamic civic organization. "It really has to do with the political climate. People are anxious, people are scared."

Republican nominee Donald Trump has talked of blocking Muslim immigrants from entering the United States, and his campaign has taken on an increasingly nationalistic tone.

With about 50 deputized registrars, Emerge USA set up registration tables at mosques, lectures, student group meetings and other public events. Volunteers have been sending mailers and making calls, working down a list of 160,000 non-registered eligible Muslim voters in the Houston area.

"This election is really important to our community," Mansoor said.

Clergy at local churches also have preached from the pulpit this year on the importance of voting as a civic duty, according to Pastor Dave Welch, president of the Texas Pastor Council, a network that includes about 400 pastors and churches in the Houston area. Most of those churches, he said, have their own deputized registrars.

"We've seen a marked increase in the number of pastors very actively promoting voter registration and turnout," Welch said. "We really think that's attributable to the fact that there's so much at stake in this election."

Fighting frustration

For some, getting people to register was an exercise in education.

"Some people have said that they're very frustrated with the state of politics, so that they don't really want to participate," said Debbie Chen, civic engagement programs director for OCA-Greater Houston, which organized groups in the region's Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Korean, South Asian and Japanese communities, which collectively make up about five percent of the Harris County voter roll, according to the county clerk's office.

"So, we have to explain to people why it's important, besides the fact that it's their civic duty," Chen said.

Deputized volunteers with the League of Women Voters did the same at monthly naturalization ceremonies in Harris County, where they registered more than 20,000 new citizens this year.

"We've had more people calling to be volunteers than ever before," said Mary Titus, the local group's co-chair for voter registration at naturalization ceremonies. "I had so many people calling that I actually had to turn them away."

Of the new voters added to the county roll since the last general election, 45 percent - about 148,000 - are younger than 30, and 23 percent are under 21.

Anthony Collier, a junior studying political science and history at Texas Southern University, is the student organizer for the NAACP political action committee's Houston branch and president of the political science club at TSU. He said he has helped register about 1,000 students in the last two years.

When the NAACP hosted a voter registration seminar, Collier brought the entire political science club to get deputized. When new freshman dorms opened on campus this semester, the club swept through and registered 300 in one night.

Collier started rallying student voters during Houston's mayoral race in 2015, but said he has "noticed it's very hard to get people excited about the political process this time around. A lot of the students are very cynical about the process. They feel like the presidential election has become a lot more like reality TV."

At the University of Houston, junior Troy Allen, who studies political science and economics, said he has registered about 400 students this year. Once this semester he bought 200 hamburger patties, set up a grill on campus and handed out food in exchange for completed voter registration forms.

"For young people, the problem isn't getting them registered," he said. "The problem is getting them out to vote. A lot of people feel like it's not worth it."

In 2014, Texas had the worst voter turnout rate of any state with a statewide election. In Harris County, 33 percent of the registered voters cast ballots that year.