Binghamton, New York, Rallies for Barack Obama Raise Youth Support

Binghamton, New York -- More than 20 devoted supporters stood outside a court yard near the Binghamton County Court on Sunday, waving signs that read, "Obama 4 America," "Change we can believe in," and "Barack the Vote" in anticipation of the New York State primary. Local news covered the event and supporters braved the cold as they stood outside for about 2 hours to raise support for Obama. Cars passing by honked their horns and drivers gave the rally people a thumbs up sign. The rally lasted from 11am-2pm.

At the rally, tables were also set up to register people to vote so that they could vote in the general election in November. Sign-up sheets were also passed around asking people to volunteer on primary Day to drive people to the polls and to raise support for Obama throughout the county. Coffee was served to the Obama supporters as extra motivation for their hard work. The Sunday rally was sponsored by the Broome County Young Democrats, the County Democratic Party and the College Democrats of Binghamton University. The rally took place in a student building, away from classrooms where teachers and learning could not be disturbed. The rally took a little while to get off the ground but soon developed a strong showing of devoted college students who wanted to promote Obama's message to students. Students who stopped by the rally engaged in discussions with supporters, interested in knowing more about Obama.

On the Binghamton University campus, Students for Obama sponsored another rally on Monday in which many members of College Democrats attended. Students at the local community college were also in attendance. The rally had more than ten students shouting and cheering for Obama while passing out handouts to remind students to vote on the primary day. More than 4 local media stations and newspaper outlets picked up the event. The event was to raise interest among college students to vote. In Binghamton, NY voter turnout is expected to almost double and college students are expected to come out to the polls in large numbers. Voting booths have been placed on the Binghamton University for students. Any student who is planning on voting needed to change their address to their Binghamton University address on the college campus in order to vote at the polling booth. If not, then students had to fill out an absentee ballot.

On Monday night February 4, members of College Democrats and the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) led a joint effort to call voters on the Binghamton University campus to remind students to vote in the Tuesday primary.

Super Tuesday on February 5 will in all likelihood determine who the next president of the United States is. Once the dust settles, we should have a frontrunner for both parties. On the Republican side it appears that John McCain is about to runaway with the nominee while on the opposite side, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are deadlocked in most states throughout the country.

For many students, this will be their first time ever voting and the process is very exciting. Students want change in American and many young voters believe that Barack Obama is the candidate who can do that.