DENVER—Actors Eva Longoria Parker, Kal Penn and Adam Rodriguez urged several dozen Barack Obama supporters at a college campus rally Saturday to make sure their friends and relatives are registered to vote in November.
The registration deadline in Colorado is Monday.
Parker said the perception is that young voters don’t care about elections or won’t show up to vote.
“They underestimate you,” Parker told the crowd at the Auraria campus, home to three Denver colleges. “You should be outraged. You should feel empowered. You do have a voice. Screw them for saying you don’t count.”
The deadline to register to vote is Monday. Parker said the next step is making sure people who are registered cast ballots.
Parker, of “Desperate Housewives,” started out as a Hillary Clinton supporter. Penn, a star of the “Harold & Kumar” movies and the TV series “House,” is an independent voter who guesses he’s voted for as many Republicans as Democrats. Both credited Obama for motivating people who may have never voted or registered before to take action and for motivating them to get more heavily involved in a campaign.
“So many of us have been asleep. We’re letting the vehicle take us where it’s going to go. It’s enough … We need somebody who’s not the same old story,” Rodriguez said after the rally.
Parker, Penn and Rodriguez of “CSI: Miami” spent Friday filming before heading to campaign events Saturday, the same day Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was in the Denver area for a private fundraiser. Palin also visited with a support group for families whose children are serving in the armed forces.
Parker, Penn and Rodriguez left Denver for a rally at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Even before the rally there, work by the student-run group Vote CSU had resulted in more than 2,800 registrations being sent to the Larimer County Clerk’s Office, KUSA-TV in Denver reported.
Meanwhile, University of Colorado students in Boulder warned each other in a campuswide e-mail to double-check that they are registered to vote in Colorado.
CU senior Jesse Jensen said the e-memo warned students about the “identification” section of Colorado registration forms. He said the section can be confusing, with voters needing to carefully read which boxes need to be checked.
CU student Winta Bahlibi, 19, re-registered at the rally Saturday in Denver just to make sure after having trouble finding her name on online voter registration records.
