There is an election fast approaching. In addition to the large groups of students armed with clipboards, eight organizations (MTV, Headcount and Rock the Vote, among others) have come together with sponsors like “Guitar Hero” and “Volt” to offer incentives for students to register to vote.

The Ultimate College Bowl is a measured response to a lack of activism some see on the part of today’s youth, and there are three categories of the contest: the school that registers the most of its students, the school that registers the largest percentage of its student body and awards for the individuals who register the most students to vote in the national election held on Nov. 4.

Prizes include a Death Cab for Cutie concert, a concert with another, yet to be determined artist, six $10,000 scholarships and Guitar Hero set-ups.

Many of these organizations have been touring with artists this year, registering young voters at concerts. Death Cab For Cutie is also a part of this campaign, and The University News got the chance to speak to Chris Walla, lead singer of the group, on the phone this week.

Though Walla doesn’t classify Death Cab as a political band, he felt it was important to get involved.

“In the 2004 election, it was really disheartening for me to hear that more people were voting in American Idol than in the presidential primaries,” Walla said.

He feels that this year’s election is in the hands of the youth vote.

“I think between Obama [for the democrats] and then Palin on the Republican ticket, people are really psyched. People are registering to vote in numbers that we’ve never seen,” said Walla. In the interest of doing the most good in the classic sort of economic terms, it really felt like the [Ultimate College Bowl] was the thing that was going to allow us to have the most impact.”

To this end, the project is specifically geared toward college students.

“I think that, because so many people’s first and second elections happen when they are in college, so many people’s political consciousness snaps into focus when they get into college,” he said. “It’s the perfect place to gear in on registering voters. Providing a platform that just makes it easy for people to register and to give incentives for college students to register to vote [is important].”

The deadline for voter registration is Oct. 8. Anyone interested in the contest can go to www.ultimatecollegebowl.com for more details.