Vanderbilt decisively defeated the University of Tennessee in the battle to bolster youth voter participation in Tennessee in the 2008 presidential elections.

The project, entitled "Takeover Tennessee," was hosted at UT by the Baker Center and challenged schools across the state to register as many youth voters as possible. The effort is one of many aimed at increasing youth turnout in the Volunteer state.

Even with a week-long head start and more than three times as many students as the Commodores, UT was dominated acquiring only 342 voter pledges to Vanderbilt's 1,726.

It's too much trouble. I'm from West Virginia, don't know how to register absentee and wouldn't have the time to anyways. UT Student, Andy S.

Actual voter registration efforts were more closely contested as UT counted registrations over the past week and Vanderbilt only kept track of voter registrations from the Saturday football game.

However, as Vandy was on a major voter registration drive staffing 132 hours of voter registration over the past seven days it is hard to imagine that UT's 332 new registrations will even come close. 

Vanderbilt's database of newly registered voters grew by 800 in the past four weeks. Without actual numbers, however, Vanderbilt acknowledged a job well done by the competitors in voter registration and conceded a victory on this front.

The youth vote across the country is historically less than impressive, but the Tennessee youth seems especially apathetic overall in comparison to their national peers.

Tennessee ranked an embarrassing No. 49 nationally in 2004 in terms of youth voter turnout, so the efforts from both schools are sorely needed and should help put a dent in the lack of participation. 

Reasons some UT students will not vote in 2008

In an effort to understand why youth voters often stay at home on election day, a few UT students shared their reasons for not voting in 2008 with the Tennessee Journalist.

"I'm only 22 and I'm already fed up with the political process in America. No matter what politicians say, things will stay the exact same no matter what party wins, no matter who is the next president."

--Courtney B.

"It's too much trouble. I'm from West Virginia, don't know how to register absentee and wouldn't have the time to anyways."

--Andy S.

"I was already registered to vote but I won't in 2008. I don't like McCain, Obama or anyone else so I'm not going to bother driving home to vote."

--Bryan C.

"I don't know how to vote without going home and I have a test the day after, so I won't vote this time."

--Jon B.

"It's one vote, it doesn't matter enough to bother. There's hundreds of millions of people and my one vote won't even put a dent in the whole process."

--Amanda J.