College Voters Compete For 'Death Cab' Show

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ALEX COHEN, host:

In this year's presidential election, getting out the youth vote is a big goal for both campaigns.

MADELEINE BRAND, host:

Over the next few weeks, we'll see how successful the campaigns have been in capturing those typically slippery demographics.

COHEN: We begin today with a look at some of the challenges college students are facing before they even get to the voting booth.

Unidentified Man: Registered to vote yet, sir?

COHEN: On a recent afternoon at the University of Southern California campus, I met 18-year-old freshman Philip Myer (ph), who registered to vote on his way to class.

Mr. PHILIP MYER (Freshman, University of Southern California): Everyone talks about democracy all the time, but we don't participate in it. You know, there's nothing more important than that, I think.

COHEN: Though Myer goes to school here in California, he's from Connecticut, and he says he was pretty confused about where he was supposed to register.

Mr. MYER: I spent a lot of time on government websites trying to figure out how to do it, and it was harder than I think it should have been.

COHEN: Throughout the country, thousands of students face a similar predicament. The situation became especially confusing for the more than 29,000 students at Virginia Tech in Montgomery County. The registrar there recently sent out a press release stating, if students from another state or county register to vote in Montgomery County, they might not be eligible for certain location-based scholarships. The release also warned that registering away from home could affect a family's tax status. Registrar E. Randall Wertz says Virginia's law about such things is very murky.

Mr. E. RANDALL WERTZ (General Registrar of Elections, Montgomery County, VA): It says residence can be determined by a number of things, and one of those things does say whether you've being playing down the parent's income tax.

COHEN: Worried about the consequences, some students in Montgomery County canceled their voter registration.

Ms. WENDY WEISER (Deputy Director, Brennan Center for Justice, NYU School of Law): There's a lot of misinformation out there, some provided by election officials, that is discouraging students from exercising their right to vote and registering where they go to school, typically.

COHEN: Wendy Weiser of NYU's Brennan Center for Justice says it's highly unlikely that students would be penalized if they registered to vote where they go to college. After coming under pressure from students, parents, and several lawyers, the Montgomery County registrar changed the message to student voters on its web site. But, says Weiser, student voters may face all sorts of other challenges. For example, many students have photo ID in the form of a driver's license from one state, even though they go to school in another.

Ms. WEISER: Some states require that your ID have your registration address on it. Students IDs don't typically have your registration address on it.

COHEN: And, she adds, any student going to school in Idaho or Tennessee will face additional hurdles.

Ms. WEISER: Students in those states actually cannot establish voting residency in those states unless they affirmatively plan to live in those states after graduation.

COHEN: To help students understand these laws instead of getting overwhelmed by them, the Brennan Center recently launched an online guide. Other organizations are going a step further to help get out the youth vote.

(Soundbite of song "I Will Possess Your Heart")

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE: (Singing) You got to spend some time, love. You got to spend some time with me.

COHEN: The trendy social networking site, Myspace, recently launched a contest called the Ultimate College Bowl to encourage college students to register themselves and their friends to vote. Students who add the most number to voter rolls could win 10,000 dollar scholarships, the video game "Guitar Hero."

Mr. NICK HARMER (Bass Player, Death Cab for Cutie): The college that registers the highest number of voters will win a free concert from our band.

COHEN: Nick Harmer is the bass player in this band, Death Cab for Cutie. Harmer says he supports Barack Obama, but the contest is completely non-partisan.

Mr. HARMER: I don't want this to be a competition between the Democrats and Republicans. That's not our idea of a healthy democracy. A democracy for us works the best when the voices are heard.

COHEN: Other groups are mobilizing the youth vote through text messaging and by teaming up with popular cosmetic companies and TV actors. So far, it all seems to be working. Stephen Kinney of the polling firm Public Opinion Strategies says a huge number of young voters participated in the primaries this year.

Mr. STEPHEN KINNEY (Partner, Public Opinion Strategies): On the Democratic side of turnout, the increase from 2004 to 2008 with voters between the ages of 18 and 29, it has had a 192 percent increase.

COHEN: On the Republican side, Kinney says there was a 30 percent increase in young voter turnout between this year and the last competitive Republican primary eight years prior. Numbers on both sides still have plenty of time to grow. In most states, the deadline to register isn't until October, and in a handful of states, you can register at the polls.

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