Colorado & Denver News

by Michael Choy, cbs4denver.com
DENVER (CBS4) ― Political campaign experts say meeting people face to face with volunteers and get out the vote efforts are still the most effective way of getting ballots cast for a particular candidate.

"It is harder and harder to reach voters through conventional advertisements," said Seth Masket, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Denver. "Door to door canvassing, canvassing and campaigning work ... most political science studies on this topic have shown it is the most effective way of turning out a vote, of actually changing someone's mind or making sure someone who wouldn't have voted otherwise will.

"It is also a very expensive form of campaigning. It takes a lot of space, it takes a lot of people, a lot of time, there is a lot of training involved, it is just a more intensive form of campaigning, but it does seem to have a big pay-off."

The Colorado campaigns of both Barack Obama and John McCain have been and will continue to focus on the get out the vote effort as early voting continues and heading up to Election Day on Nov. 4 in a push to carry the state's nine electoral votes.

"They're either blistering their toes or blistering their fingers making the dials," said Tom Kise, spokesman for the McCain campaign in Colorado. "Any given time, we probably, right now, have hundreds if not thousands of volunteers working for the campaign across the state, so with our 13 different offices, all of them are bustling with activity."

"We've had such enthusiasm across the state in response to Barack Obama's message of change and as a result, we have over 10,000 volunteers out there right now," said Stephanie Mueller, spokesperson for the Obama campaign in Colorado. "Our biggest strength has been that we do have an amazing corps of volunteers. They are the ones who are really directing this effort across the state to turn out the vote on Election Day."

While both campaigns are working to turn out the vote, the general consensus is that the Obama campaign has an advantage on the ground because of its financial standing and previous grassroots organization.

"I think in Colorado, the Obama team is just out organizing the McCain team right now," said Masket. "That's one thing the Obama campaign has been very good at, as far as I can tell this year. They have relied on their own volunteers and staffers to contact their own networks of friends. They've really played up on social networks and basically got people to use their own resources to campaign."

"We've been having a ground game around the country and techniques and tactics and a system that we've used for the last 8 years plus that has been very successful at the national, state, federal, local level," Kise said of the McCain Campaign. "We're implementing that same sort of process here in Colorado."

"Since the very beginning, we've been very much a grassroots oriented effort," Mueller said. "This is really about people and their communities who are responding to Barack Obama, to the change that he'll bring this country. That's really the success of this campaign so far."

Volunteers for the Obama camp are working out of more than 50 offices across the state, dozens of which are positioned in key communities. The McCain camp said it was confident of its ground operation.

"They can have 100 offices, 200 offices, they can spend all the money they want," Kise said. "At the end of the day, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are going to carry this state because of our ground game."

Kise suggested the Obama campaign is attempting to target and turn out too many types of voters.

"The Democrats have approached this from everything we can tell from a very shotgun approach," he said. "They're scattered all over the place, their target list is extremely large, they're reaching out to people who have never voted before, who may never vote. They just don't have a universe that is real dependable universe for them. We're looking at a very focused targeted universe of voters we know are going to turn out for Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin and we are 100 percent confident that we're going to turn all of our voters out and at the end of the day it is going to carry the state."

"I think if you look at the experience in the primary, you have had people turning out in record numbers, many of them people who haven't participated in the political process before," Mueller said. "We're not just going out and talking to voters who have participated, we really are about opening up this political process to new people, ensuring that everyone is making their voices heard."

Both campaigns agree the race for Colorado remains tight and they're not letting up. Each is encouraging early voting and asking mail-in voters to fill out their ballots and return them ASAP.

"We've seen recently, the national polls have the race within three to four points," Kise said. "Local polls here have the race within three to four points, within the margin of error."

The Real Clear Politics average of the latest polls on Colorado show Obama with a 7.2 percent lead. The CBS4/Rocky Mountain News poll late last week (which isn't included in the current average) showed Obama up by 12. The narrowest margin is 4 points in a FOX News/Rasmussen poll taken Sunday.

"We really do think this is a close race," said Mueller. "We're not taking anything for granted."

The political experts remind everyone that the election isn't over until the votes are counted.

"We won't really know until next Tuesday night or maybe next Wednesday morning," Masket said.

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