With warmer weather comes Rock the Vote, and with Rock the Vote, voter registration tables arrive here on the UT campus.

Over the past three days, students have had the opportunity to register to vote at two on campus locations. Tables, staffed by UT students, have been set up on the pedestrian walkway and in Presidential Court.

According to the SGA's Director of Government Affairs, James Akins, who manned the pedestrian walkway table on Monday along with Jaclyn Barnhart, between 50 and 60 students registered at their table on Monday alone.

Over at Presidential Court, Kevin Tolliver and Nikki Nichols reported a count of 19 registered voters on the same day.

While the registration tables are non-partisan, with forms available for both the Democratic and Republican parties, volunteers agree that the campus is evenly spread out politically.

"We are pretty diverse," Akins stated.

This week isn't the first time this school year that students have been given the opportunity to register on campus. The Student Government Association presented students the chance to make their voices heard back in the fall semester.

"SGA did this in the fall, and we registered 130 plus," Akins said.

The United States has seen a decline in young voter turnout every election cycle until 2000.It is visible that students' interest in how their country is governed runs high at the University of Tennessee, but the growing trend around the nation seems to mirror the sample size here in Knoxville.

Since 1971, 18-year olds have possessed the right to vote, but according to a study by The Century Foundation, other than the initial election after the right was bestowed, where 52 percent of young people exercised their voting privileges, the United States has seen a decline in young voter turnout every election cycle until 2000.

The Century Foundation, a nonprofit public policy research institution, says in their study that while young people vote at a lesser percentage than other age demographics, the rate of increase in voter turnout is greatest among young adults.

The study shows that it is imperative for young people to become involved in electing who runs their country. Without the youth vote, elected officials are likely to be put into office with views and issues skewing solely to the older demographics, and failing to equally represent all of their constituents.

By looking at the studies and polls, it appears that the trend of apathy among the majority of young adults is being replaced by a newfound sense of responsibility and interest in the workings of their government.

According to the Kennedy School of Government's Institute of Politics March 2007 survey, 71 percent of non-college young adults are registered to vote; and 85 percent of college students are registered to vote. Combined, a total of 75 percent of young adults are registered to vote. In June 2007, pollsters Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner Research found that 92 percent of eighteen- to twenty-nine-year olds said that they are "almost certain" they will vote in 2008, which is only one percentage point shy of the 93 percent of "all ages" who said they are "almost certain" they will vote in 2008. Sixty-one percent said that they would definitely vote in the general elections. And another 18 percent said that they would probably vote. Only 4 percent said that they were definitely not going to vote in the general elections. Century Foundation Report

Time will tell if the high poll numbers translate to a high turnout of young voters.

No matter what the turnout, this 2008 presidential election season is shaping up to be one of the most popular among young voters in recent history. With a young candidate in Sen. Barack Obama, the wife of a former president in Sen. Hillary Clinton, and Sen. John McCain, a candidate who often appears on television programs targeted at younger audiences (i.e. The Daily Show), young voters are feeling more involved than ever this presidential season.