Columbia remains a hub for politically active young minds as the midterm elections approach, but an undercurrent of apathy persists on campus. CTV News asked students if they are going to vote in the November elections.

“I am not going to vote in the elections. I know it's really bad but I'm really lazy.”

“I mean, I definitely don't know enough about the candidates.”

“I might do an absentee ballot, perhaps.” “Oh you only have seven days to do that, there are fourteen days until election.” “Really?”

Some of the most respected figures in political media gathered inside Columbia's Journalism School on Tuesday to address issues concerning the nation's political landscape.

Ben Smith, a journalist for Politico, noted that “these are the midterms and a lot of people who supported Obama, particularly young voters, aren't expected to show up again. Really I think they don't care or aren't invested in the local politics of wherever they happen to be living, and they see congressional elections in this sort of hazy category of local politics and these elections that happen in off-years. But they really aren't paying attention.”

The Columbia Democrats would argue that the student populace is very much involved.

“This year we’ve had almost fifty students come to almost every single body meeting,” claims a lead activist for the CU Democrats, Sean Quirk.

Another lead activist, Helen Killian, believes that “because our numbers are very similar to what they were in 2008 people care about the issues, and they understand that in order to get policy passed about the issues they care about, they have to elect politicians.”

The Columbia Democrats are doing their part to spread the word. They will canvass in Pennsylvania this year for incumbent 8th district congressman Patrick Murphy and senatorial candidate Joe Sestak.

As Sean Quirk states, “the Dems as a group strongly supports the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, and Patrick Murphy has been at the forefront of the campaign to repeal don't ask don't tell.” Another lead activist for the CU Dems, Michael Rady expands on this point: “He's a young person, he is an Iraq war, the first Iraq war veteran in Congress, he introduced the amendment to appeal 'don't ask don't tell', he also voted for the Healthcare and education reconciliation act.”

The CU Dems, along with the Columbia Political Union and College Republicans, have formed the voter registration coalition to get students signed up to vote.

“So far we've registered over 850 new voters - 850 students at Columbia,” boasts Sean.

Many Columbians will spend the days leading up to the election at the Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert rallies in Washington D.C., an affront to the radical fear-mongering displayed by Glenn Beck and others.

“It's just to reestablish a mainstream that's not in the news right now.”

“Through their shows, that is the only way we've gotten young people to think about politics.”

Still, the CU Dems would like activists to take a more serious approach.

Sean Quirk realizes that “the rally is good in that it can help energize the base, but as an event that is organized on Election Day it kind of conflicts with what people should be doing, democratic activists at least should be doing, they should be knocking on doors and they should be phone banking. They should be helping the Democratic candidates running for the house and senate. We're going to have incredibly close elections.”