By Zenitha Prince
Washington Bureau Chief
GREENSBORO (May 1, 2008) – At first glance it seemed to be a mini-Woodstock Festival—young people (and few older heads) lounging in hammocks or on blankets spread on the grass, hands nursing cold drinks under a scorching midday sun and alternative rock adding a strangely happy soundtrack to the scene. But this event served a deeper purpose, however.
“Change Rocks,” the name of the concert held in the Pavilion parking lot of the Greensboro Coliseum Complex, was part of the Obama campaign’s efforts to draw more new voters to the polls before May 6 when Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will vie for 115 delegates, the largest crop of delegates before the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August. In North Carolina’s case, the potential for a significant victory is even more tangible given the new One-Stop Early Voting process.
In North Carolina......, the potential for a significant victory is even more tangible given the new One-Stop Early Voting process.
“Hopefully you absorbed all the info about early voting,” said Mac McCaughan, lead vocalist and guitarist for indie rock band Superchunk, which hails from Chapel Hill, N.C. Obama volunteers had been passing out literature, talking to attendees and pointing them to the early voting site, which was about 100 feet away. And two college students had performed a skit about the same-time voting.
“So go out and do so (vote early),” McCaughan said before he and the band launched into a head-banging number.
Gary Bartlett, executive director of the State Board of Elections said the law was passed to increase voter participation in general but specifically among youth. One-Stop Early Voting allows the voter to register and vote at the same location, on the same day. The process takes no longer than 20 minutes, one poll worker said. And it will also help to streamline next week’s primary, Bartlett added.
“Not only will it help us with the long lines at the polls but it is going to help us cut down on the number of provisional ballots,” he said. “So the work we’re doing upfront will help us with auditing votes after the election.”
Carrie Dewberry, 19, a first-time voter, said the same-day voting makes the process easier for newcomers like her.
“There are a lot of first time voters who don’t what to do so this makes it simple for them,” she said.
Theodore Arrington, professor of political science at University of North Carolina, Charlotte, said usually, early voting does not make much of an impact.
“The evidence is clear: Early voting does not change anything. The people who vote early are the people who would have voted anyway,” he said as in the 2002 municipal elections when same day registration did not have much of an impact.
But registration trends in this year’s primary have defied those statistics, however.
In all, 5.6 million North Carolinians have registered this year, compared to fewer than 5.1 million in May 2004. Registration numbers have surged over all categories of race, age, gender, class and party affiliation. From Jan. 1 to March 31 of this year, 106,000 White voters signed up to vote, more than double the registrations in 2004. And among Blacks, who comprise about one-third of the electorate, more than 45,000 registered in the first three months of 2008, compared with just over 11,000 in the first three months of 2004.
For many voters, the historic race between Clinton and Obama, potentially the first woman and Black presidents, respectively, has spurred them on to participate.
“This is the first time I’m voting because it’s the first time a candidate has ever made me interested,” said Myra Cherry, 26, of Greensboro, who is supporting
the Illinois senator.
Much of the new registration has been among Democrats, who, at 2.6 million-plus voters, have almost double the number of registered Republicans. And the number of unaffiliated voters has also surged to 1.2 million. The change is attributable, in part, to the more than 45,000 voters who switched party affiliation this year.
Of those, about 42 percent switched to Democrat and another 42 percent to unaffiliated. Only 15 percent switched to the GOP.
More than a fourth, 11,748, of these voters switched from Republican to unaffiliated, the biggest switch. Another 19 percent flipped from the GOP to the Dems.
“That enormous shift is because of the incompetence of the Bush administration,” professor Arrington said.
Similarly, the number of voters who actually cast their votes will be high, possibly about 50 percent, he predicted.
Already, almost 321,000 one-stop ballots have been cast and close to 18,000 absentee ballots returned.
“In primaries, turnout has traditionally been low, about 20 percent, [because] usually the nominees are chosen by this time,” Arrington added. “This time there’s going to be a lot more than that.”
Both candidates have seen the value of rousing voters. In fact, the early voting has challenged the dueling camps to be more creative in their campaigning.
“Campaigns were organized so they came to a climax that weekend [before the primary],” Arrington explained. “Now you have a climax of two weeks.”
The Clinton campaign has sought to connect with voters through an advertising campaign that asks prospective voters to submit questions to the New York senator. And the Obama camp has created a contest between registration recruiters with a meeting with the presidential hopeful as the prize.
With the concerts, said Dewberry, a Winston-Salem resident and a student at North Carolina A&T, the Obama has wisely reached out to one of his key constituencies—young, college-age voters.
“This concert was a good idea,” she said, while lounging on the pavement facing the stage, “because it attracts younger people, who don’t usually vote. So we come to hear music and then we vote.”