A forum with the Democratic presidential candidates scheduled for Columbia has been moved up a day to Jan. 30, organizers said.

Changing the day from Jan. 31 will make it easier for the Democratic candidates to attend, said Leila McDowell, communications director of the Washington-based Center for Community Change, which is sponsoring the event.

McDowell said several Columbia radio stations have signed on as supporters and will promote the event heavily. Nationally syndicated radio host Tom Joyner will moderate the forum, and organizers say they believe a national cable network will sign on to broadcast the forum live.

Most of the candidates will be in Greenville on Jan. 29 for a nationally televised debate sponsored by the state Democratic Party. Having the Columbia forum the next day makes it more convenient, McDowell said.

Still, most of the candidates have not confirmed they will attend the Jan. 30 event, which will be at The Township auditorium. McDowell said organizers “pretty much expect everybody. There’s always the caveat that the fortune of politics dictate one or two don’t come for various reasons.”

Radio stations WWDM and Hot 103.9 are promoting the event, said Mary O’Donnell, news director of Inner City Broadcasting, which owns the two stations.

“We’re definitely getting the word out,” O’Donnell said. “We’re hoping to change the perception, the attitude, and say that, ‘Yes, your vote does count.’”

The forum, billed as the “Dialogue with America’s Families,” is aimed at organizing and mobilizing low-income families as voters. The candidates who attend will take questions from families.

It will be followed by a get-out-the-vote effort. Activists will board buses and travel around the state to register voters and urge people to vote in the Feb. 3 primary.

O’Donnell said the radio stations will charter a bus to carry several of its disc jockeys to help with the grass-roots effort.

The campaign is starting to attract national attention. The National Council of Churches said last week it is working to send its members to Columbia for the forum.

“This will be a unique opportunity to help bring issues of poverty and economic injustice to the public debate,” said a news release from the organization.

The council is an ecumenical organization of 36 Christian denominations. It counts more than 50 million people among its 140,000 local congregations.

Reach Gould Sheinin at (803) 771-8658 or asheinin@thestate.com.