Yesterday’s Crab Feast was a host of familiar sights — rows of bibbed students, tin trays brimming with corn on the cob and buckets of Maryland crab. But the host — the SGA — had something more on its agenda.

With the days ticking away until students must register to vote or miss out on casting a ballot in November’s presidential and state elections, the Student Government Association was working to reach as much of the student body as possible with its registration efforts. Yesterday’s seventh annual Crab Feast, held at Cole Field House, included a table for members to catch participants on their way out, encouraging them to sign up to vote on iPads and Netbooks under the new online voter registration system using student IDs.

“Predominantly a lot of the [Crab Feast] tickets that we sell are to on-campus students — freshman and sophomores — and so a lot of them aren’t registered to vote,” said Kevin LaCherra, SGA traditions and programming director. “It’s such an important thing.”

As of late yesterday afternoon, 1,208 students had registered to vote using the new system, which the SGA launched about a week ago, according to SGA Director of Governmental Affairs James Jalandoni. While the Oct. 16 deadline is fast approaching, Jalandoni said he has an “ambitious” goal of registering 2,000 students online. An estimate of how many new registrations the body gained at Crab Feast was not available last night, Jalandoni said.

Several students said they did not realize the event had a voter push because the SGA did not set up its registration table until around 6:30 p.m.

However, junior chemistry major Pamela Gorgei said they still managed to get her attention.

“This is an especially good place to get younger people who haven’t gotten a chance to register,” said Gorgei, who was already signed up to vote.

The SGA’s station provided the right convenience to persuade some students, such as sophomore government and politics and journalism major Christina Germano.

“I didn’t even think [to register] when I was at home this summer,” she said after signing up to vote. “It just never crossed my mind.”

Germano — who said she knew the Crab Feast was featuring voter registration — added the system was quick and easy to use.

“I had a few things mailed to me, and I found a few things online about registering to vote online, and it’s just a lot of stuff to go through — a lot of steps,” Germano said. “This was just really convenient.”

The size of the event also made Cole Field House “a good place to target people,” said junior finance and marketing major Kelly Markham. About 1,000 students showed up to celebrate the university and state tradition with their student groups and friends. Many out-of-staters had their first experience with cracking open a crab, while others were just as familiar as area natives. Throughout the event, SGA members went table-to-table to spread the word to those who were unaware of the new online voter registration system.

While the organization is focused on registration this week, one of its biggest priorities leading up to the elections is “making sure students are empowered at the ballot box,” Jalandoni said.

“I think everybody’s geared up to make that final push,” he said.