With the Nov. 7 election less than two weeks away, organizations supporting and opposing the referendum banning gay marriage are shifting their focus from educating voters to getting them to the polls.
Fair Wisconsin, an organization opposing the ban, hopes to have thousands of young volunteers participate in its ""get out the vote"" efforts, according to Rachel Strauch-Nelson, a spokesperson for the group.
""We'll be doing literature drops, and finding people in the dorms, and making phone calls, to make sure that we get in touch with everyone and remind them to vote ‘no',"" Strauch-Nelson said.
One of the main groups encouraging voters to support the amendment is Vote Yes, and one member of the group, Rocco DeFilippis, said while they are appealing to voters with radio ads and phone calls, churches are central to motivating voters.
""There's more opportunities for networking in that environment,"" he explained.
Working with churchgoing, conservative voters who vote more often than students do is an advantage, according to UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin.
""You're tapping into a set of re-enforcing beliefs, and for that case, working through the church is more effective than going door-to-door,"" Franklin said.
But Franklin is skeptical of the motivating power of amendments banning gay marriage, because voters are really motivated by the candidates, he said.
""While a lot of political operatives, especially on the right, seem to think that [an amendment banning gay marriage] is a magic bullet for raising conservative turnout, at least in the 2004 election, turnout was more mixed,"" Franklin said.
And though the amendment was opposed by some church organizations as well, Franklin said the ruling in support of gay marriage rights in New Jersey Wednesday may help rally support the for the amendment.
Many voters are confused by the contradictory definitions supplied by the two sides of the amendment, and as Nov. 7 grows nearer, each side is blaming the other for this confusion.
DeFilipps blamed ads made by Fair Wisconsin, saying they misrepresent the implications of a ""no"" vote by saying that voting against it will have no direct consequences.
""People who would normally support traditional marriage, they hear a misleading ad like that, and they think that the proper way to vote is ‘no,'"" he said.
But Strauch-Nelson said the amendment's ""legalese"" and unclear wording are to blame for any confusion.
""I think that people who supported this amendment have written a confusing amendment and they've worked to pull the wool over the eyes of voters and not let them know what is really at stake here,"" she said.
