Employees at the Island County Auditor’s Office are busy inputting information from last-minute filings of voter registration forms.

But while the state is reporting a record number of registered voters this year — at more than 3.5 million and growing — it appears that Island County may fall behind past years in the number of those signed up to vote.

Island County Auditor Sheilah Crider said the current tally is 46,586 registered voters in the county. Her office has processed 5,815 new voter registration forms so far this year — as of 12:30 p.m. Tuesday — but more continue to arrive in the mail.

“We have a very large envelope from the Secretary of State’s Office,” she explained.

Of the 5,815 new registrations counted, a total of 2,062 were filed since the Aug. 19 primary. That’s well over a third.

The deadline for registering by mail and online was Saturday, Oct. 4, but residents can still register in person at the auditor’s office until Oct. 20.

Voter registration and participation is generally expected to be high nationwide because of the interest in the presidential election. Barack Obama’s candidacy is predicted to coax an especially high number of young people to register and vote.

“It’s just an interesting time,” Crider said. “It really is.”

Yet so far, the number of registered voters in the county falls behind past years, according to canvassing board reports from past elections. In 2004, the count was 50,727 registered voters. The number rose to 51,072 in 2006 and dropped to 48,800 last year.

Crider said the number of registered voters fluctuates by 3,000 to 4,000 each year due to people moving away or being removed from the rolls.

The Secretary of State’s office reports that 160,000 voters statewide were removed over the last three years due to duplication of registrations, felony convictions and the death of voters. Also, some were moved to inactive status because ballots were returned to the counties as undeliverable or because the person didn’t vote in the past two federal elections.