HeadCount has partnered with MySpace and four additional leading voter registration and civic groups to launch the Ultimate College Bowl. The national contest will award scholarships and a free concert with Death Cab for Cutie to the students and school that register the most students to vote before this Novembers election. According to a statement, the nationwide effort constitutes the largest voter registration drive ever devised using viral online technology and grassroots organizing coupled with incentives, all in an attempt to get schools and students competing to register the most voters.
This is the first time America’s four largest non-partisan voter registration groups Declare Yourself, HeadCount, Student PIRGs, and Rock the Vote as well as Why Tuesday?, a leading voter education organization, have joined forces to register voters. The organizations are offering a number of prizes, including scholarships to students who get the most friends to register to vote, a chance for students from every state to become a ‘delegate’ at the Constitutional Convention 2.0 at the National Constitution Center in January 2009 and concerts for the school whose students register the most by number and by percentage of student body. The contest will be run via an application and widget available to all college students at www.myspace.com/ultimatecollegebowl.

HeadCount has registered over 120,000 voters since forming in 2004. The organization has registered 60,000 voters in the last year alone. Look for an in-depth interview with HeadCount co-founder Andy Bernstein and Marc Brownstein in the November issue of Relix.