The presidential candidates, and colleges themselves, are making a lot of effort to attract the student vote in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucus on January 3.

But according to The Dallas Morning News, it may not have much effect.

Presidential candidates have drawn as many as 10,000 people to rallies at Iowa’s largest colleges, the newspaper reported. And some colleges are planning special housing for students who want to stay in Iowa for the caucus, rather than return to their home states during winter break, it said.

Nevertheless, voters between the ages of 18 and 24 made up fewer than 4 percent of Iowa-caucus participants in 2004, despite accounting for 21 percent of the state’s eligible voters, the Morning News reported.

“Young people can play a role in the Iowa caucuses, but are they going to?” Michael P. McDonald, a George Mason University professor and an expert on voter turnout, told the newspaper. “This is always the question.”