An unprecedented push for young voters seems to have worked in Maine.

From Orono, which nearly ran out of ballots, to Gorham, which had to extend its shuttle-bus hours, thousands of college students turned out to vote this year.

“There was this great energy,” said Kate Simmons, director of Maine’s New Voters Project.

Nationally, only about 40 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds voted in the last presidential election, according to the New Voters Project, a year-and-a-half-old national, nonpartisan group. In Maine, about half of those 30 or younger went to the polls, Simmons said.

To increase the number of young voters, state and local officials offered easy, convenient registrations at high schools and colleges across the state this fall. At some sites, free ice cream, red wristbands and T-shirts drew in potential voters.

The New Voters Project registered 4.6 million new young people nationwide. About 6,000 of them were in Maine.

But would those new voters go to the polls?

Although no official numbers were available Wednesday, Maine officials say they did.

“They seemed to be really excited about the election,” said Brunswick Town Clerk Fran Smith, who dealt with new voters from Bowdoin College.

By Tuesday, at least 1,000 of the college’s 1,670 students had registered to vote in Brunswick. Smith estimated that hundreds voted by absentee ballot, bypassing potential lines at the polls. Hundreds of others voted Tuesday, taking advantage of five shuttle buses that ran to and from the polls between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Alex Cornell du Houx, 21, worked for months to register his Bowdoin College classmates to vote. On Tuesday he went door to door to remind them that it was Election Day.

“Every single person had voted,” he said.

At Bates College in Lewiston, officials offered a shuttle and students set up a table in a common area to answer questions about voter registration and polling places.

After talking with friends and going door to door to remind classmates to vote, Bates seniors Dave Burns, 22, and Alexy Cherniack, 21, estimated that 80 to 90 percent of their classmates had voted.

“I was pretty happy with the turnout on campus,” Cherniack said. “We did all we could.”

In Orono, demand was so high from university students and others that officials nearly ran out of ballots and had to get state permission to photocopy more.

At the University of Southern Maine’s Gorham campus, officials extended the hours of a van that shuttled students between the college and the polls, running it for 13 hours instead of 10 when they realized there was a demand.

Across the state, students displayed “I voted” stickers and Election Day T-shirts.

“Four years ago this just was not happening,” Simmons said.

Officials credited the grass-roots efforts by students, work by the New Voters Project and the state’s Promote the Vote 2004 campaign for the high turnout of young voters.

According to the New Voters Project, the youth vote was up nationally as well. About 32 percent of young people voted in 1996 and 42 percent voted in 2000.

This year, the group said, exit polls showed that more than 52 percent voted.