New location for Obama's acceptance speech excludes thousands

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article described the Obama campaign’s 931 program as requiring three nine-hour shifts of voter registration work. It requires three shifts totaling nine hours of work. The story has been changed to reflect this.

CHARLOTTE — The Democratic National Convention Committee announced Wednesday that it will move today’s convention proceedings inside to Time Warner Cable Arena — meaning hundreds of UNC students will no longer be able to attend President Barack Obama’s acceptance speech.

Obama was originally scheduled to accept his nomination for re-election in Bank of America Stadium, the football stadium for the Carolina Panthers.

But convention officials cited severe weather forecasts and the safety of attendees in their decision to move the speech indoors to the arena, where the majority of speeches and votes were conducted for the first two days of the convention.

A convention official confirmed that about 75,000 people had received community, or public, credentials to attend Obama’s speech. None of those credential holders will be admitted into the arena, which has an estimated capacity of 15,000 people.

“The energy and enthusiasm for our convention in Charlotte has been overwhelming, and we share the disappointment of more than 65,000 people who signed up for community credentials to be there with the president in person,” said Steve Kerrigan, CEO of the committee, in an email statement.

Convention officials encouraged those with credentials to remain in Charlotte and view the speech at one of several watch parties.

Obama will hold a conference call with community credential holders today.

But staying in the city is not an option for students, said Austin Gilmore, president of UNC Young Democrats.

Gilmore said the group was forced to cancel its plans to bus 150 students to Obama’s speech today, and other students who came to the convention early traveled back to Chapel Hill Wednesday.

“We’re definitely disappointed that we’re not going to see Obama speak,” Gilmore said. “But there’s nothing you can do about rain.”

Ashley Stearns, a UNC junior studying economics and public policy and a member of Young Democrats, said she has friends all across the country who were planning on coming to the speech with community credentials.

Stearns obtained a ticket via the Obama campaign’s 931 program, through which volunteers could work three shifts totaling nine hours to help register voters in return for admittance to the speech.

After devoting all those hours to the campaign, Stearns said she was disappointed to learn about the shift in locations and subsequent denial of public entry.

“I thought the decision to put it in the stadium in the first place was a little strange,” she said.

Democratic officials had said a stadium full of thousands of cheering spectators would bolster Obama’s image and case for re-election in the wake of campaign rallies earlier this year that drew smaller crowds than 2008. The change in venue could throw a monkeywrench into that strategy.

But Gilmore said the more exclusive locale won’t necessarily project the appearance of less enthusiasm. He compared it to the UNC men’s basketball team playing a game in Carmichael Arena rather than the Smith Center.

And students can still watch the speech — just not in person.

The Young Democrats are co-sponsoring a watch party with the Black Student Movement at the Stone Center, Gilmore said.

Contact the desk editor at state@dailytarheel.com.