Al Gore to Campaign for Barack Obama

After shying away from the campaign spotlight for nearly all of the 2008 presidential race, former Vice President Al Gore will campaign for Barack Obama in south Florida in the final days leading up to the election.

Gore will travel to Florida Friday and attend Obama rallies in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, according to the Obama campaign. His wife, Tipper, will also attend the rallies.

The former vice president will encourage Floridians to vote early, the campaign says, in the hopes of avoiding any vote-counting confusion reminiscent of 2000. Both rallies are dubbed “Early Vote for Change” events.

“Nobody knows better that every single vote counts–especially in Florida–than Vice President Al Gore, who will be encouraging Florida voters to Early Vote in record numbers so no amount of chads, butterflies or undervotes can stand between Floridians and the change we need,” Obama Florida State Director Steve Schale said.

Current polls show a tight race in Florida, with Obama leading GOP rival John McCain by an average of 3.5 percentage points in RealClearPolitics’ average of surveys, placing him near the margin of error for those polls.

Gore carried the West Palm Beach/Fort Lauderdale area in 2000, collecting an average of 68.5 percent of the vote in surrounding congressional districts.