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Rock Rolls Out Voters

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By VALERIE KALFRIN

vkalfrin@tampatrib.com

Published: November 2, 2008

TAMPA - Anthony Williams and Alfonso Jones hadn't met before they wound up next to each other Saturday while waiting to vote at the College Hill Branch Library.

Williams, 18, was voting in his first presidential election. His teacher at D.W. Waters Career Center had stressed the importance of voting, he said.

Jones, 51, said he liked George W. Bush as president eight years ago, but regarding the economy, "He's got the country turned upside-down."

Before joining hundreds of other voters in line, both attended a rally for Democratic nominee Barack Obama featuring comedian Chris Rock at the Belmont Heights Little League Park on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The event was roughly two blocks from the early voting site.

The rally also featured Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Earnest Graham, U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor and state Rep. Betty Reed. Castor encouraged the roughly 300 rally attendees to take advantage of early voting should problems arise on Election Day.

Saturday was the last early voting day in Hillsborough County. Pinellas County residents can vote today from noon to 4 p.m.

The library's voting line started growing in the parking lot at 4:30 a.m., more than two hours before the polls opened, said Vaular Dine Rouse, 72, an Obama campaign volunteer. At the rally, Reed said 1,200 people had voted there on Friday alone.

Saturday was another heavy day at the polls in early voting that has already set records. Voters at some of the county's 13 early voting sites waited in line more than three hours to vote.

Rock, who was scheduled to appear at a rally in Norfolk, Va., later Saturday night, spoke for about 10 minutes at the ball field. He riffed about how Obama is more relatable to average people than McCain.

"Economically, this guy is not your peer," Rock said, joking that he tried to take his children trick-or-treating to McCain's houses, but there were too many. "You need a president who can at least see broke. ... We got some broke people here."

Although Rock's comments were a bonus for some, the comedy - and the historical significance of perhaps electing the first black president - was incidental to Jones. He said he liked seeing "how people have started to come together as one country."

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800.

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