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CROSS PLAINS, Wis. (AP) — At this stage of the election, the arguments have been made, the airwaves flooded with ads, the inboxes and doorsteps stuffed with flyers. What’s left is to get out the vote.
It’s a crucial step that can make or break campaigns, turning Americans into voters by nudging them to the polls — or the mailbox or ballot drop-box — with their choices.
Democrats this year are relying on a traditional strategy of targeted phone calls, text messages and door-knocking, from the party and its allies, to encourage turnout for Vice President Kamala Harris. Former President Donald Trump has outsourced much of the Republican operation to groups such as America PAC, the organization supported by billionaire Elon Musk, which has taken the unorthodox and possibly illegal step of giving away $1 million a day in prize money.
Now the two sides are going head-to-head to get their voters out in battleground states:
Kathy Moran never thought she’d be standing on the street at sunset, political flyers in a bag slung over her shoulder, trudging door to door trying to persuade people to vote.
But Moran, a 64-year-old retired employment attorney, said on a crisp late October night that she couldn’t sit on the sidelines any longer.
“With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which I couldn’t imagine, I just had to get involved,” she said while canvassing the streets of Cross Plains, a village of about 4,000 people on the outskirts of Wisconsin’s liberal capital city of Madison.
It’s volunteers like Moran who Democrats hope will make the difference in swing states like Wisconsin, where four of the past six presidential elections have been decided by 21,000 votes or less.
The Democrats’ approach to getting out the vote is clear: they are tapping a vast network of activists, volunteers, Democratic Party faithful and others to spread out across the country to ensure their voters go to the polls.
What America PAC is doing for Trump is less clear.
America PAC is targeting infrequent voters in Wisconsin by canvassing neighborhoods and sending mailings and digital and text ads, said the organization’s spokesperson, Andrew Romeo.
However, America PAC refused a request from The Associated Press to observe the work in person.
Republicans have privately expressed concerns about whether America PAC is doing enough to get out the vote for Trump in crucial battleground states. Whatever their methods, more Republicans are voting early than in past elections, another sign of high enthusiasm.
“A get-out-the-vote operation can’t turn a jump ball into a landslide," said Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler. “But it can absolutely turn a 50-50 race into a 49.5-50.5 race.”
Moran said she logs between 8,000 and 14,000 steps on a typical night of canvassing and encounters mostly Harris voters as she knocks on the doors of houses decorated with skeletons, grave markers and a few political signs.
One woman refuses to engage with Moran, saying through the closed glass screen door it’s “none of her business.” Another man says he’s already voted but wouldn't say for whom.
Another spots her “Harris/Walz” and “, la” buttons, smiles and says, “I see you’re with Harris.” He assures her that everyone in his house is voting for her.
Moran enters notes on an app so voters committed to Harris aren’t bothered again.
The Harris campaign has more than 40,000 volunteers plus a staff of 220 working out of 32 field offices across the state. The campaign says its volunteers and staff have knocked on more than a million doors, including more than 100,000 last weekend alone, and has made two million phone calls.
“The ground game is very, very busy,” said state Sen. Freddie Powell Sims, a Dawson Democrat. “We are knocking on doors everyday, but the communities are huge. There’s a lot of ground to cover, but we have extremely diligent volunteers going out and putting their all into this race.”
Sims said she’s unsure who will win Georgia because she's seen similar on-the-ground enthusiasm from Republicans.
The Trump campaign says it has nearly 25,000 volunteers working in Georgia, and has hosted more than 2,000 events there over the last three months.
At one event, eight women in matching pink Trump jackets with ‘47’ emblazoned on the sleeves and personalized etchings of their names marched into a spacious ranch south of Atlanta as part of Team Trump’s Women’s Tour.
The audience in South Fulton was small, but RNC co-chair Lara Trump and former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler urged supporters to rally their friends to vote for Trump.
Kim Burnette signed up to phone bank with the Trump campaign this year, calling infrequent voters who are registered Republicans.
“A lot of people are saying they’re going to vote,” Burnette said. “It’s looking good.”
Candace Duvall drove about 30 miles to the event and showed up decked out in gold Trump merch -- she patched sparkly letters spelling out his name onto her t-shirt and wore earrings that displayed his mug shot. She rushed to the polls on the first day of early voting to vote for Trump, but she’s still receiving a flurry of texts, calls, and paper flyers from his campaign.
“He’s our only chance,” Duvall said. “I really think he was chosen by God, and I think this is good vs. evil.”
Camilla Moore and Lisa Babbage, chair and vice chair of the Georgia Black Republican Council, also showed up to support the women for Trump.
The pair has been mobilizing Black voters in South Fulton through events over the last few months.
“It has been easier this time than ever before,” Moore said.
People are less shy about supporting Trump now than they were in 2020, Moore said. They're more open to conversation as they make the case for the former president.
Charles Benson, 68, of Kinston, North Carolina, said he’s getting contacted several times a week, mostly by text, about the election and voting.
Benson, who is retired, attended Trump’s rally in nearby Greenville in late October, two days after he voted early in person. Still, candidate mailers keep filling his mailbox.
“I’m ready for it to be over,” Benson said. “I’m tired of taking that stuff out of the mail every day.”
Emma Macomber, 76, of New Bern, another Trump supporter at the Greenville rally, said she’s been contacted regularly, largely through text, being asked for political donations and to make sure that she votes.
Macomber said she’s already cast her ballot and has made some contributions.
“I want it to be over, but I’m scared for it to be over,” she said. “Because I don’t know what’s in the future, and I think everyone’s afraid of the unknown.”
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Kramon reported from Atlanta, Robertson from Raleigh, North Carolina, and Mascaro from Washington.