As presidential candidates court the growing number of young voters, Stephanie Dezee just wants to get more of her peers to care.

Campus activists like Cal State San Marcos' Dezee say college students are split between the traditionally apathetic and the recently passionate -- sparked by a few nontraditional candidates and an unpopular war.

"If you ask a general student, they couldn't tell you the date of when to go vote in the primary," said Dezee, a 23-year-old Oceanside resident who volunteers for the Democratic Party. "But from what I've noticed, there is more enthusiasm and interest in this campaign."

Campaigns for candidates of every political stripe are targeting the historically unreliable 18- to 24-year-old voting bloc, though whether that effort will pay off won't be known for some time. That hasn't stopped the campaigns from turning to the Internet with hopes of nabbing those votes.

Social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook have huge traction on college campuses, boasting millions of users.

Facebook, especially, has the potential to allow popular candidates to snowball.

It has a "news feed" function that informs users of their friends' actions, including posting support for a particular presidential candidate.

Campaigns have recognized the power of such sites and look to take advantage.

"I barely know any students that don't have Facebook," said Brian Pepin, a 2007 San Diego State graduate and volunteer for Mitt Romney's campaign. "It's really easy to post up on there, 'I'm a Mitt Romney supporter,' and have all your friends see it."

Practically all of the presidential campaigns have created profiles on the site, and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has dominated the Facebook race.

As of Friday, Obama boasted 323,700 supporters on Facebook, almost four times Hillary Clinton's second-best total. Ron Paul leads all Republicans with 80,562. Facebook users add themselves as supporters to the candidates' profile with the click of a mouse, allowing the campaigns to send messages and track likely voters.

Over 24 hours last week, Obama's Facebook profile gained more than 12,000 supporters.

On UC San Diego's most congested pedestrian walkway on Thursday afternoon, Obama supporters significantly outnumbered those of other campaigns.

Six or seven volunteers for Obama competed for the attention of passers-by against a sole supporter of Mike Huckabee and two Hillary Clinton volunteers.

In this more traditional approach to campaigning, the volunteers tried to interest fellow students in their candidates' political views as well as their stickers and other paraphernalia.

Obama volunteers at the La Jolla campus had students sign pledge cards, which added their names and contact information to a database that volunteers said will remind them to vote. "Blitzing," as they called it, in front of a row of vendors shilling everything from knockoff designer sunglasses to kettle corn, the Obama supporters said his message of change and infectious charisma are the means of attraction for college students.

"I've never had this much confidence in a candidate. I've never been this excited about a candidate, and I've been involved in politics for a long time," said Shereen Nourollahi, a 20-year-old biology major from Escondido. "I've been amazed about the positive feedback from people. When we ask, 'Do you support Barack Obama?' people cheer and holler."

Nourollahi transferred to UCSD from Palomar College and said the student body at the larger college is much more politically active than at Palomar, which she called a commuter college where more students live at home and avoid becoming involved with campus life.

On campus or online, volunteers with other campaigns weren't close to conceding the younger vote to Obama.

"The students I've met believe that Mitt Romney is the best man to run this country," Pepin said. "They understand how important it is to have someone with his beliefs."

The lone Huckabee volunteer on campus said the former Arkansas governor is the most attractive Republican candidate for young voters, something he has seen in campaigning.

"I think the main thing is (Huckabee's stance on) the Fair Tax," said Alec Weisman, a UCSD freshman studying ecology. "Most of us are sick of being taxed over and over. Just getting taxed on your income and then getting hit with the corporate tax. And with him, it's more than talk; he's had action as a governor."

A volunteer with Clinton's campaign said she thought a lot of students lean toward the former first lady's experience over Obama's promise of change.

"I think young people are extremely attracted to her message. I think it's a misconception that (Obama is) the candidate for young people," said Yoyo Chan, a 19-year-old international studies major at UCSD. "I feel almost like he's the trendy candidate and some people are voting for him just because their friends are."

But Dezee, at Cal State San Marcos, said her support for Clinton was secondary to her main goal in campaigning on campus: simply encouraging students to vote.

John Baden, campaigning for Obama at Cal state San Marcos, agreed. He graduated last year with a degree in history but remains involved in an effort to increase political awareness.

"We have to make the whole process fun for people and get away from the negativity," Baden said. "When it turns into two people bickering, young people, especially, tune out."

The San Diego County Democratic Party has also made a push this year to get college students to vote, regardless of political affiliation.

In campaign drives at San Diego State University and UCSD, the Democrats registered more than 1,500 people, mostly students, said Jess Durfee, chairman of the county organization.

The Republican Party of San Diego County did not have any registration drives on college campuses, instead focusing its efforts on districts, said Jonathan Buettner, chief operating officer of the organization.

But whether the young voters the parties are vying for will actually play a major role in the primary remains to be seen.

Many analysts thought younger voters would play a major role in the 2004 presidential election. But though there was a roughly 10 percent increase in youth participation that year, their impact was diluted because overall voting turnout also surged, said Richard Brake, director of the New York-based Intercollegiate Studies Institute's Lehrman American Studies Center.

"I think it's always a mistake, until it's proven wrong, to spend more money courting the youth vote than spending money courting the elderly vote," Brake said. "Just because the elderly are more likely going to vote."

If Obama secures the nomination, Brake said, he expects younger voters to flood the polls in November.

"College kids gravitated to (John) Kennedy, and that was a generational election," he said. "You get those every once in a while, and if Obama is the candidate, this is setting up to be one of those years."

Contact staff writer Zach Fox at (760) 740-5412 or zfox@nctimes.com.