BANGOR – In what some school officials are calling the most significant presidential election in U.S. history, Maine colleges and universities are stepping up to the plate to educate and register young voters on campus.

Higher-education officials met Thursday at the University of Maine System office to pledge their support for voter education and registration initiatives on their campuses.

“Participation is the one thing that we all really work hard to stimulate in our students and universities,” UMS Chancellor Joseph Westphal said Thursday.

Taking part in Thursday’s ceremony were schools in the UM System, Maine Maritime Academy and Maine community colleges.

The event was sponsored by the Maine Secretary of State’s Office, the New Voter Project and Maine Campus Compact, a coalition of college and university presidents designed to encourage and support campus engagement in the community.

“Our universities are the ideal places in which to build that civic participation,” Westphal said.

The goal of the New Voters Project, a grass-roots voter mobilization campaign, is to increase the participation of 18- to 24-year-olds in the 2004 election. The project is the most comprehensive voter outreach effort in Maine’s history, according to Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky.

“We want you to be involved. We need you to be involved,” Gwadosky said. “We look forward to working with the higher-education community.

Through efforts on college campuses around the state, the project already has registered 500 new voters. The program also goes beyond college campuses, and representatives of the project said they intend to reach out to area businesses in the next few weeks to encourage more young people to register.

“It’s time to say to our candidates, ‘Pay attention to us,'” said Kate Simmons of the New Voter Project.