Come Nov. 4, there's another reason to exercise your right to vote. Think of it as a friendly rivalry between Penn and Dartmouth.

Dartmouth has issued a challenge to Penn to get a higher voter turnout rate on campus next Tuesday - and Penn has accepted.

"Earlier this summer I talked with some Ivy presidents about ways to make students get out the vote, and I was thinking of a tangible and fun way we could get students involved," said Dartmouth senior and Student Assembly president Molly Bode, who issued the challenge to Undergraduate Assembly chairman and Wharton and College senior Wilson Tong.

"We picked Penn because we know it's very active politically," said Bode, who noted that both Pennsylvania and New Hampshire are swing states.

Tong, who officially accepted the challenge on behalf of Penn and the UA at yesterday's meeting, sent out an e-mail last night to the entire undergraduate student body explaining the initiative and providing links to polling places and information about absentee ballots.

The school with the higher percentage of registered students who vote on Election Day will be declared the winner.

Tong and Bode are still ironing out some of the trickier details of the initiative, including how to measure off-campus and absentee voters, who are more difficult to count.

Tong said a large part of Penn's strategy will be to reach out to other student organizations for help in voter turnout as well as to engage the class boards in possible inter-class competition.

He said he is also deciding on a prize for Penn students if the University wins - likely a giveaway or party.

Tong also plans to join forces with Penn Leads the Vote, a non-partisan group on campus. Bode will join with Vote Clamantis, a similar organization at Dartmouth.

College senior and Penn Leads the Vote president Stephanie Simon said the group is using Facebook and list serves to spread the message. The organization also just produced a "Don't Vote" YouTube video and will decorate campus on Election Day.

However, some Penn students questioned the effectiveness of such a competition so late in the election cycle and believe it would have had a greater impact had it been implemented before the voter registration deadline.

"I don't think it will matter that much because you have to already be registered, and people who are registered will end up voting anyway," said College sophomore Bao Tram.

Even for those who are registered and are not planning to vote, "I don't think the competition would be that big of an incentive," said Tram.

"I think a lot of people will already vote but the purpose of this is to add more excitement," said Tong.

In any case, the biggest incentive of all may be school pride.

"If we lose, I will wear Penn gear for a week and if Penn loses, Wilson has agreed to wear Dartmouth gear for a week," Bode said.