By Steve Huffman
Salisbury Post
Rowan County’s Barack Obama backers have taken support meetings for the Democratic presidential candidate to new levels.
On Monday, almost 100 supporters gathered at the Rowan Public Library on West Fisher Street.
At 7 p.m. Monday, a similar rally is planned, also at the library.
“We’re encouraging people to go out and register to vote,” said Emily Perry, one of the organizers of Rowan for Obama, a group that started meeting just three weeks ago.
From that initial meeting at Port City Java, backing for Obama has grown tremendously, attracting people of all age groups and racial backgrounds, Perry said. “It has been a good group,” she said.
A field organizer from Winston-Salem who works for the Obama campaign has been working in Rowan County in recent weeks. He declined comment about his duties, noting the national campaign has asked that Obama volunteers talk to the press.
Perry, a health educator who works for the state government, is like a lot of people who support Obama. She said she worked for Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaigns in the late 1970s but admitted her interest in those elections was nothing compared to this one.
“It’s at a whole other level,” Perry said.
Obama’s concern for the working people drives her and plenty of others to support him, Perry said.
“Health care is a big, big issue,” she added. “Just knowing that he’s thinking about the average working person means a lot.”
Perry and others are working to get people registered to vote prior to the May 6 primaries.
Another event scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday aims to get more young people to the polls. “Rock the Vote, Democracy North Carolina” will be held on the front lawn of Livingstone College. Food will be served, and organizers are inviting students from Livingstone and Catawba colleges, as well as those in the neighborhoods surrounding Livingstone.
“Really, it’s just a registration drive,” said Shantel Isidori, a Livingstone sophomore who’s one of the Rock the Vote organizers. Students and others will be able to register to vote at Monday’s event.
On April 24, in a move reminiscent of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, students will march from Livingstone to the offices of the Rowan County Board of Elections to cast their ballots, Isidori said.
Isidori said group members are staging the march because spring classes will finish before the May 6 primary, and many students will have left campus.
She’s encountered numerous students ó from places like Boston and New York City ó who tell her they’re registered to vote in their home states.
But when she asks if they’ve voted in their state’s primaries, typically, the response is “No.”
Then, she suggests that they change their voter registrations to North Carolina and vote in the primary here.
Isidori said Livingstone also will host an Obama rally next Thursday, April 3, though plans for that event haven’t been finalized.
While Monday’s Rock the Vote rally is not staged in support of any particular candidate, the same won’t be true of next Thursday’s rally, where praises of Obama will resound.
“People are ready for a change,” Isidori said. “They’re very excited about Obama.”nnn
Contact Steve Huffman at 704-797-4222 or shuffman@salisburypost.com.