Presidential candidates step up efforts to bring out voters

In what’s shaping up to be another close election in North Carolina this fall, both presidential campaigns are stepping up their ground game efforts to bring voters to the polls.

President Barack Obama’s campaign cut the ribbon on its 52nd office in the state last week, located in Hillsborough.

The opening emphasized the gap between the two campaigns’ state offices. Obama’s campaign has more than double the offices of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign, which has 24 offices in the state.

Obama narrowly won the state by about 14,000 votes in 2008. Thomas Carsey, a UNC political science professor, said in an email that both campaigns are attempting to galvanize their base and persuade a shrinking number of undecided voters in the state.

Carsey said local offices could be instrumental in winning the Tar Heel state in such a tight election.

“In a race that is close, anything that affects turnout and the vote margin even slightly can be decisive,” he said.

Lindsey Rietkerk, president of Tar Heels for Obama, said the offices are all the more important in a close race, especially among young voters.

Cameron French, North Carolina’s press secretary for the Obama for America campaign, said in an email that campus organizers have been working with students to register voters across the state.

But Romney’s camp insists they have one of the best grassroots efforts in the nation in North Carolina, despite Obama’s office advantage.

Robert Reid, North Carolina communications director for the Romney campaign, said the campaign increased its efforts in multiple ways since 2008.

He said the campaign has knocked on 188 times more doors and made 23 times more phone calls in the state than in 2008. The campaign estimates that it has made about 2 million voter contacts.

“We feel very good about our footprint,” Reid said. “We have our presence in all our major counties (and are) making a progressive get-out-the-vote push.”

At a phone bank event on UNC’s campus Thursday, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan made a surprise call to excite a group of UNC for Romney volunteers.

Tori Bragg, director of North Carolina’s Young Americans for Romney, said Ryan called in to thank young supporters who have led the nation in calls made and doors knocked on for the campaign.

Despite Obama having more than twice the number of state offices, Kenan Drum, chairman of UNC for Romney, said youth voter enthusiasm will more than fill the void.

Rachel Adams, communications director for Romney’s North Carolina Victory campaign, added that the number of offices is less important than the success of voter outreach efforts.

“I don’t really think having more offices means much if you aren’t producing out of them,” she said.

Contact the desk editor at state@dailytarheel.com.