They will be everywhere. In classes. Up and down State Street. Even making their way to the bars at night.

Come this fall, a massive, widespread voter registration effort will inundate campus to ensure that a record number of 18- to 24-year-olds go to the polls and cast their ballot this election. Students can expect to be bombarded by both presidential campaigns and a number of non-partisan groups as part of an “historic get-out-the-vote effort” targeting new voters.

“Wherever young people are, we’re there,” Jessy Tolkan, state campus director for the New Voters Project, said.

Voter registration groups will show up at almost all major campus events, from welcome week to football games. They also plan on conducting “class raps” before lectures, where volunteers will ask students to vote.

“Our goal is to make sure every student is asked at least twice to vote,” said Erica Garry, assistant organizing director of the New Voters Project, adding the group hopes to register 10,000 new voters on campus by Oct. 19.

Local bars should prepare to be besieged by registrars as well — the New Voters Project said they plan to solicit students to vote at State Street Brats every night until Election Day. Non-related campus events, such as Halloween, will also become targets due to the number of young people on campus that weekend.

The University of Wisconsin Homecoming committee, as part of this year’s “Vote for Bucky” theme, is participating in the voting coalition’s effort as well.

According to a committee coordinator, UW is currently in talks with MTV Rock the Vote to bring a large music concert to Madison in early October featuring different artists and political leaders. The event, which would significantly top the committee’s normal yearly budget, is tentatively slated to take place either on Library Mall or the Natatorium fields near Lakeshore Dorms.

Until all votes are cast Nov. 2, UW — which has always been home to an abundance of political activity — will be a hotspot not seen in recent years. The tremendous push to engage the traditionally apathetic 18- to 24-year-old demographic in this highly competitive swing state means Wisconsin college students should prepare to receive an enormous amount of attention, putting them on the forefront of an intense national campaign.

Although the Kerry and Bush campaigns will try to steer young voters toward their respective candidate, the non-partisan voting coalition claims their No. 1 objective is just to get students voting, not to ensure victory for one party over another.

“Our goal is just to get students to the polls,” said UW student Jennifer Knox, a coordinator for the Associated Students of Madison Vote 2004 coalition. “What they do at the polls, whose ballot box they check, is their own business.”

Yet many experts assume these groups will skew the campus vote in the liberal ticket’s favor. Knox admitted targeting students for voter registration would probably aid Kerry over Bush in the end.

“Being in a more liberal area, it may be helping the Democrats more,” she said.

In fact, many Republicans contend the voter registration effort, though officially meant to simply engage and educate young people politically, is really a liberal guise to win the election for Kerry.

“I think a lot of people see right through [it],” said Chris Lato, Republican Party of Wisconsin communications director. “It is clear there is a partisan effort going on there.”

America Coming Together admits it plans to actively emphasize the “failed policies of Bush” to students this fall. The organization is not affiliated with any party but identifies itself as a progressive issue advocate, also known as a 527 group.

“I mean, you can figure out what we’re trying to do,” said Mitch Wallace, ACT campus student coordinator.

New Voters representatives, however, claim they are “100 percent” non-partisan. They argue young people are just as politically divided as the rest of the American electorate and pigeonholing college students as typically liberal is an, “old fashioned notion.”

Regardless of whether an intense voter registration push helps the Democrats or not this fall, campus Bush supporters acknowledge it will be an uphill battle to win UW for the GOP.

“There are no lost causes in this election,” said UW student Jessi Schober, co-chair of Students for Bush. “But on the other hand, we do acknowledge how hard it is to win campus.”

Schober conceded Madison would probably not earn a visit by the President this semester, who she thought would opt out of investing time in the traditionally liberal city to campaign elsewhere in the state.

More than likely, UW students can expect to be courted by major players in the Kerry campaign, including the Massachusetts senator himself, more than those on the Republican side.

“I think we will see a couple really big people come through Madison this fall–and they will all be Democrats,” said Liz Sanger, chair of College Democrats.

While liberals on campus expressed enormous confidence the student vote would go to Kerry, they–as well as college Republicans–admitted the larger issue is not which way UW will go, but how the closely split Wisconsin electorate will vote as a whole.

“I’m hopeful that if we win campus, we will win Wisconsin too,” Sanger said.