Sororities on the University of Wisconsin campus are participating in a unique competition intended to increase voter participation amongst those in the Greek system. The contest is running from now until voter registration ends Oct. 19.

Each participating sorority elected two delegates to act as liaisons between their house and the coordinator of the event, said UW junior Barbara Kiernoziak, a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority.

These elected delegates are required to attend two separate meetings. The first meeting will educate the delegates on voter registration and education. They will then be deputized so they can legally register voters.

It is the responsibility of the delegates to register as many of their sisters as possible before the Oct. 19 deadline, Kiernoziak said.

At the second meeting, the delegates will focus on voter turnout and receive voter-information sheets. The meeting also will focus on the policies of each presidential candidate.

The competition is non-partisan. Its sole focus is to get the Greek community to vote in the upcoming election.

"Especially for women it's a huge thing to have [the right to vote]," said senior Lindsay Thompson, president of the Panhellenic Association. "We hope to get them out there to exercise that right."

After Oct. 19, a final count of the registered students will be taken, and a trophy, the "Voter's Cup," will be awarded to the sorority with the most voters registered.

"The intent," Kiernoziak said, "is to make this a permanent tradition, like the Minnesota Axe."

Kiernoziak presented the plan for this competition to Associated Students of Madison last year and received interest from all the fraternity and sorority houses. She said she was disappointed, however, to find fraternities have expressed no interest in participating this year.

But sororities have shown a lot of interest, both Kiernoziak and Thompson said.

Kiernoziak originally decided to create the contest based on the leadership shown in sororities and their reputations as "communities of empowerment." She had hoped this competition would get politically interested students more involved in this and future elections.

"The Greek body is 10 percent of the [UW] population and we need to start making some noise," Kiernoziak said.