The Nov. 4 election is almost a week and a half away, and students are seeing an increase in campaigning in areas on and around campus.North Carolina is considered a battleground state that could move from red to blue, and presidential candidate Barack Obama’s supporters from all over the country are coming to N.C. in hopes of garnering support for their candidate.Obama supportersObama supporters visted the Brickyard Wednesday, coming from quite a distance, and they weren’t the representatives from Harvard University on behalf of Americans for Obama in Italy — they were graduates of Nottingham University from the United Kingdom.Iain Smith, a graduate in political science from Nottingham, was one of these campaign volunteers.”I wanted to get involved in politics back home… [and] the things Obama thinks are very similar to the way I am politically,” Smith said.Kat Banaghan, another Obama volunteer from England, said campaigning for the candidate is very important to her.”Where we are, we’re so affected by who’s in power in the USA,” Banaghan said.Smith said anti-American sentiment has been growing throughout history in England, but that Obama doesn’t portray the sense of hatred that increasingly seems to represent American politics.”I’ve always loved America and it’s the most benevolent superpower we’ve had,” Smith said.Obama has a more human approach, Smith said, that will bring a change in sentiments about America back in England.Banaghan agreed.”We think obviously Obama is going to be the most effective leader in the USA,” she said.She said he will make a change in the economic state of Americans and everyday people, which will in turn affect relations in the United Kingdon.Emma James, another volunteer, said there’s always been “a special Anglo-American relationship.””And it was damaged after [Prime Minister Tony] Blair followed [President George] Bush into Iraq,” James said. “I really feel like the U.S. became alienated… after the war.”And like Banaghan and Smith, James said she loves America and hopes better relations are reinstated.Bob EtheridgeBut representatives from the national campaigns weren’t the only ones in the Brickyard Wednesday.Congressman Bob Etheridge was campaigning for re-election in district 02.Etheridge said he was excited to see the involvement of younger people in this generation.”Young people should vote this year given where we are in terms of the election,” he said. “Every vote… counts the same thing. Young votes are very critical.”Etheridge, a former state superintendent, said he’s already done work to help students while in office whether it was student loans, the Farm Bill or Pell grants.”Every student that comes out of a school system and wants to go to college ought to be able to go,” he said. “If you don’t, you’re denying a student  and the family an opportunity because education does equal opportunity.”Etheridge, who took graduate level courses at State, said coming back to the University showed him the Research Triangle Park wouldn’t have been established if it hadn’t been surrounded by the North Carolina universities.And as the election draws closer, he is continuing to campaign harder, he said.”Every day I do something related to voting just to encourage people to go out and vote,” Etheridge said.Features Editor Alison Harman contributed to this report.