Millions of voters across the nation will flock to the polls to cast their votes on Election Day, many of which have been decided supporters of one candidate for many months. However, others have remained uncommitted during the final stretch of campaigning.
In the past week, the campaigns for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate John McCain have been working nonstop to sway the undecided population and encourage historically apathetic voters to get to the polls.
I think not many people are going to forget Tuesday is voting day, but every little additional urging adds a little more motivation,"" said Katherine Cramer Walsh, UW-Madison political science professor. ""For people who think the race has already been decided '¦ those reminders can help a lot.""
The ""ground games"" of both campaigns have become increasingly intense over the past week.
""They have very well developed ground games '¦ there will be lots of phone calls, lots of knocking on doors, offering people rides [to the polls],"" said UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin. ""The thing that the parties have the most control over is trying to maximize their turnout, so I expect them to put a lot of effort into that.""
The final days of the campaign have produced increased efforts from both parties to persuade undecided voters. Last week the Obama campaign ran a 30-minute ad on seven TV networks, capturing an audience of over 33 million viewers, according to the Los Angeles Times.
""In the case of Barack Obama, because he has a substantial budget advantage, he's taking out these half-hour ads '¦ that's kind of unprecedented,"" said Dhavan Shah, UW-Madison professor of journalism and mass communication.
According to Shah, Obama's budget advantage and grassroots support suggest the election may tip in his favor.
""[Obama supporters] have a very sophisticated system, they are very well organized, they have a lot of volunteers '¦ McCain supporters are frankly a bit demoralized right now,"" Shah said.
However, others remain skeptical about who will benefit from the final days of campaigning.
""The Bush campaign in 2004 proved that it was possible for them to mobilize more new Republican voters than the Kerry campaign did [for Democratic voters],"" Franklin said. ""The caution is simply don't assume only Democrats can benefit from increased turnout '¦ we saw four years ago that it can go the other way.""
According to an Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll released Friday, one in seven voters were either undecided or will switch who they were initially planning on voting for. The poll indicated 4 in 10 of the undecided lean toward McCain and 4 in 10 lean toward Obama.
""Our efforts are more to target weak McCain supporters to make sure that they get out to vote, and also people who identified themselves as undecided earlier in the election season,"" said Katie Nix, state chair of Students for McCain. ""We definitely think it's worth our efforts to keep working.""
In the final frenzied days before the election, all that is left to do is make sure people around the nation get to the polls.
On the UW-Madison campus, Students for Obama has been disseminating information about poll locations to students.
""Just making sure the information gets out will be our main focus,"" said Ami ElShareif, chair of Students for Obama. ""Students are very excited, they are extremely motivated.""
