Bernstein, executive director of HeadCount, said, "This effort will mobilize thousands of campuses and millions of students."
While the Ultimate College Bowl is dedicated to registering students to vote, it does not try to force students to choose one candidate over the other. It feels that it is the student's job to choose and hopes that the contest will be enough to get students registered. By creating this competition, it makes democracy a bit more entertaining and interactive. Ultimate College Bowl's MySpace page is set up so that students can go to check up their school's status at anytime. Currently, Boston College is not even in the top 10. The current first place holder has 1,093 voters while SUNY at Stony Brook has second place with 849 registered voters. One BC student, Kristoffer Munden, has an account that is currently in second place in the student registration section with 128 registered voters. His account is a registered collaboration between the UGBC, College Republicans and College Democrats. While only 128 students are currently registered, paper registrations will help bolster the number of students registered for BC. Given the nature of this competition, BC could probably win one of the two competitions.
Since the Ultimate College Bowl keeps track of number of students registered and percentage of the student body registered, it is easy to check up on everyone's stats at any time. In spite of over 400 schools committed to the competition, their numbers are still low enough that if the general student body of BC pooled its resources, it would most likely win. If every new freshman registered to vote, BC could likely clinch the top spot and win the Death Cab for Cutie concert. So while you're sitting there debating whether you're going to register to vote, think about all that you would accomplish just by registering. And if you're still unconvinced, go dig up a copy of Death Cab's "We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes" to see if that will change your mind. For more information on Ultimate College Bowl, check out its page on MySpace.
Spring Break
