Two Can Play the Get-Out-the-Vote Game

While Democrats are busing Ohio winos to the polls during early registration, one Christian university is planning their own get-out-the-vote effort:

On Sept. 10, Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. delivered a high-minded message to the students at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. The son of the late evangelical leader spoke of the students' civic responsibility to vote. Then he made an announcement.

"We are planning to cancel classes on Election Day," he said, his voice instantly drowned out by wild cheering. "Now I know what you care about," he observed, laughing.

It's part of a grand strategy to get Liberty's 10,000 students to vote in Virginia. The university will bus students to the polls, stage an all-day concert complete with food, and lift curfew so they can watch the results on a giant-screen TV.

For the past 44 years, Virginia has been a reliably Republican state. But this year, the presidential race is a tossup. Polls put Democrat Barack Obama slightly ahead of Republican John McCain.

"We never told them how to vote," Falwell says. "We never even talked about the issues. We just talked about the fact that Virginia was right on the fence and could go either way — and that they could become known as the college that elected a president if the numbers came down just right."

So, who do we want determining the next president? A: Ohio winos or, B: Virginia Christian college kids? I'll take "B".