It's common knowledge among political consultants that, generally speaking, people under 30 don't vote.

Barack Obama's campaign has put a remarkable amount of capital behind the idea that, taken seriously, twentysomethings will prove those consultants wrong.

A lot is riding on this belief.

If John McCain manages to hold Bush states such as Florida and Ohio, Obama's alternative path to the White House leads through Colorado. And to win here, Obama will need a significant chunk of the new voters he's registered to turn up at the polls -- and, as of right now, more of those voters are under 30 than over 60.

If a random selection of students on the University of Colorado campus is any indication, Obama is sitting pretty.

Of the more than 20 students we talked to, every one of them said they either had voted or planned to vote. Only a few knew someone personally who was not planning to vote -- and, from the sound of it, they take a lot of heat for it.

"I know one guy who just refuses to vote," said Matthew J. Videtich, who works at the Domino's Pizza in the University Memorial Center.

David Thome, 21, said peer pressure lead him to cast a ballot.

"I was going to be one of the apathetic ones," Thome said. "I was the only one, but so many pushed it on me, I realized it's not as nerdy as I thought."

Thome said his parents were agnostic on the subject, but his sister wouldn't let it go: "She kept saying, 'You need to get involved, David. Stop being an idiot.'"

Others are savoring the chance to vote -- not just by mail, but in person on Nov. 4.

"Oh, my God, yes," said physics major Erin MacDonald when asked if she plans to vote.

McDonald said she won't vote early because she wants to have the experience of voting on Election Day.

"My generation's first cognitive political experience was the Clinton scandal," she said. "It's just been one bad thing after another -- and we want change."

It appears that the efforts to directly engage voters on campus are paying dividends. Dustin Manley, a math major in the ROTC, said he voted because "people chase you down if you don't."

"You don't see this so much now that it's gotten cold, but, a few weeks ago, every 100 feet, there was a booth with some group asking if you voted," said Jake Partin, an active duty Marine.

During a recent trip to campus, it was difficult to find students who said they are voting for McCain.

"You might have found one," Partin said, noting that active military personnel are not allowed to engage in political activities in uniform.

If anything, the get-out-the-vote effort has reached a saturation point at CU.

Professor Mike McDevitt's research on youth civic engagement suggests college students actually are more likely to volunteer and participate in social activities.

"Regardless of whether a young person votes this year, even those who don't, there's still this emergent form of citizenship," McDevitt said.

Indeed, a very large number of those interviewed not only had voted, but also were involved politically.

David Christopher and Melissa Jones, canvassers for Progressive Future, said they became full-time community organizers after graduation, for little pay.

"It's daft to call it naive because we have made a difference," Jones said. "We left Michigan because we won. We won New Hampshire, now we're here. At first it's idealism, but then you get results."

In the University Memorial Center, CoPIRG recently set up a table for people to write down the reasons why they voted.

"I just got my citizenship," read one. "I'm voting because I want a job after school," read another. "If you tell women you voted for Obama, you earn major brownie points," read a third.

Then there was this one: "I want politicians to start paying attention to young people."