As I sit here writing this article on Monday, less than two hours before the official commencement of Election Day 2008, I have no idea in what state our country will find itself as you read this Wednesday morning. We may be celebrating the first election of a black president, the first election of a woman vice president or the first write-in election of a character of "The West Wing" (I'm not saying I voted for Bartlet ... but I'm not saying I didn't).

Regardless of which of these predictions prove to be accurate, however, I already know one thing for sure - there are more than a few enthusiastic and well-educated students among us who had no say in the matter.

I'm not talking about the girl whose absentee ballot did nothing to sway her overwhelmingly conservative home state, or even the guy who slept through his alarm and decided Tuesday morning that voting was for parents and political science majors. No, there are more than a few responsible citizens on our campus and throughout the country who did everything they were supposed to do in order to make their voices heard and, quite simply, got screwed.

Earlier this semester, SAVE, a student-run voter education organization, made an effort to go around campus and encourage students to register to vote in Tennessee, where perhaps their vote was needed more or the actual voting process would be simpler. When some of the students went to check their status before the election, however, their registration had not been submitted, and an e-mail to SAVE produced only an apology and the encouragement to vote in the next election cycle.

This is only one of many stories I have heard about problems with registration in the months leading up to elections, and ironically, it's usually the organizations that do the most to encourage student voting that end up creating the most debilitating roadblocks. Many will remember the 2006 debacle in which over 50 student Democrats were unable to vote due to the loss of their registrations; in this case, it was actually the office of senatorial candidate Harold Ford who literally stuck a handful of all-but-guaranteed votes into a drawer and forgot them.

I understand that in the majority of these cases, the intention is rarely to disenfranchise eager young voters, but the fact remains that the registration process is too often a confused and disorganized one, and the lack of legal accountability in the cases of such errors makes for an epidemic of irresponsibility at a time when we desperately need the system to be working in our favor.

Perhaps someday in the future, the voting process will finally enter into the 21st century and our nation's greatest right and privilege will no longer be one of its most antiquated and inefficient systems. In the meantime, I hope the youth of America will learn to guard themselves against these devastating mistakes.

Be wary of third party organizations who generously volunteer to take care of all your registration needs; their intentions may be pure, but the chances of your forms getting lost - address and social security number included - are much higher when in the hands of an overworked student much like yourself. Instead, try to work as closely with your local government as possible, and do it as early as possible. In fact, register now. The 2012 election is only 1460 days away, and you're not going to want to miss out ... again.

Carolyn Pippen is a senior in the College of Arts and Science. She can be reached at carolyn.m.pippen@vanderbilt.edu.