In an effort to reach millions of young adult voters before Election Day, liberal student-based group MoveOn Student Action has launched a national advertising campaign in more than 150 university newspapers warning of a possible military draft in the event of President George W. Bush’s re-election.

“Right now we’re running the ‘Feel a Draft’ campaign to educate students about the potential return of the draft and how the course we set in this election may make the difference,” said Ben Brandzel, project director of MoveOn Student Action, a group with a membership of 170,000 affiliated college students. “This is just one aspect of many potential consequences of our current foreign policy, but it has the potential to permanently change our way of life. We should at least make that choice with our eyes open.”

In a closely contested race that political experts believe may ultimately be decided by the 18- to 30-year-old demographic, youth advocacy groups have questioned whether or not a vote for a certain candidate implies voting for the conscription of college-age students as well.

Though both presidential candidates have firmly denied plans to implement the draft if elected, MoveOn Student Action members said they believe Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is more likely to stay true to his pledge than his incumbent opponent.

“We believe that Kerry’s policies will push us away from a draft — such as enlarging the active-duty military and relying more on international assistance — while Bush’s policies have and will continue to push us towards a draft — more of the same combination of pre-emptive war and endless occupation,” Brandzel said. “We launched the draft campaign because we saw it as a very important issue to our members that was not getting a lot of attention from the mainstream media and the candidates.”

Republican National Committee spokesman Yier Shi said that MoveOn’s claim is false, and that the group is spreading fear to help Democrats win votes.

“President Bush has said numerous times, emphatically, that there will be no draft if he is elected,” Shi said. “Right now we have enough soldiers in Iraq. An all-volunteer army is best suited to fight the wars of the 21st century. It works when we pay well and have a large military budget.”

Representatives of the Democratic National Committee differed in their opinion of America’ s current military situation.

“George W. Bush has badly mismanaged and overextended the military. It can’t sustain its current pace,” Democratic National Committee spokesman Josh Earnest said.

Earnest also praised Kerry’s policies on the issue.

“John Kerry has a plan to increase the number of military troops and add incentives to encourage military service, increasing volunteer personnel. Bush has not presented a plan to deal with new threats and the strain being put on our military,” he said.

No evidence supports Democratic assertions that the military faces a shortage of soldiers, Shi said, suggesting that the use of the issue by the Kerry campaign indicates its willingness “to do and say anything to win political points.”

“I would tell [young voters] to not worry about the draft,” Shi said. “I want them to be active, to vote. Hopefully their votes would be based on education and pocketbook issues, and whether or not they are being protected. To vote on false information would be unfortunate.”

According to Selective Service spokesman Dick Flahavan, the president and Congress would need to approve a request from the Department of Defense and amend the current national law that deals with conscription before being able to reinstate a draft.

On Oct. 5, only two members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of a symbolic bill that would have reinstated military conscription.

“Congress has no immediate interest in bringing back the draft, [and] the Department of Defense has indicated no need for a draft,” Flahavan said. “It is happy with our volunteer services. [The Selective Service] has not received any special guidance to get ready [for an impending draft]. We have simply heard what everyone else has heard.”

Created to engage students and young people in the political process, MoveOn Student Action is a project of the MoveOn.org Voter Fund and Click Back America — progressive groups that have been critical of Bush. The project has no affiliation with any presidential campaign and its funding comes from individual contributions.