In final push before Election Day, party faithful pull out all the stops

Political party faithful are out in full force in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys.
VINDICATOR STAFF REPORT
With only two days before the election, political party officials in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys say now is not the time to rest.
The officials say the party faithful, including hundreds of volunteers, are working nonstop to make sure voters get to the polls to cast ballots for President Bush or John Kerry, his Democratic challenger.
"I've been involved in politics for 30 years, and I've never seen anything like it before," said Mark Munroe, Mahoning County Republican Party vice chairman and chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign in that county.
"There are people working hard for both candidates," said Pete Vessella, Lawrence County Democratic Party chairman. "I've never seen it like this."
A few thousand volunteers along with some paid staffers are doing the typical get-out-to-vote activities in Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana, Mercer and Lawrence counties.
That means going door to door, calling voters through organized phone banks, asking others to volunteer, and on Election Day, driving voters to their precincts, monitoring polling stations and handing out campaign literature to voters, and serving as challengers inside the polling locations.
In Mahoning County, Munroe said the Bush-Cheney campaign sent a half-dozen full-time paid staffers to assist with the massive volunteer effort to re-elect the president.
Democratic counties
Munroe said he realizes Bush isn't going to win either Mahoning or Trumbull, two of the most Democratic counties in the key battleground state of Ohio. The goal is to keep Kerry's voting percentage in the low 60s or less, he said.
"We expect the president to get at least 35 percent of the vote, but we are optimistic we could break 40 percent," Munroe said. "What's really remarkable is how much money and time is being spent in this county to move from 35 percent to 40 percent."
While most of the 13,000 people who registered to vote in the county this year were recruited by political organizations that oppose Bush's re-election, Munroe said Republicans aren't worried about their impact.
"We don't think the newly registered Democratic voters are as committed to turn out Tuesday as the newly registered Republicans," he said.
Lisa Antonini, Mahoning Democratic chairwoman, disagrees with Munroe's assessment.
"No one's factoring in the new voters, who will put Kerry over the top," she said.
Antonini predicts Kerry will get 63 percent of the vote in Mahoning County.
Democrats have eight paid Kerry-Edwards campaign staffers in the county, and at least 500 volunteers. Also the numerous nonprofit political organizations who oppose the re-election of Bush have about that many volunteers in the county, Antonini said.
"This election is mind-boggling," she said. "I've never seen this before. The Republicans have a good team, but they can't match our machine."
Volunteers
In Trumbull County, both the Republican and Democratic parties have hundreds of volunteers ready to work Election Day.
The Democratic Party expects to have 900 volunteers working the election, said Chairman Christ Michelakis. The Republicans expect about 700, said Chairman Craig Bonar.
The chairmen said volunteers are more motivated for this election than any other.
Republicans expect to beef up the ranks with volunteers who've traveled from Missouri, Colorado and Texas, Bonar said.
Bonar said the vote in Trumbull County and the Mahoning Valley could swing Ohio in the presidential election.
"Obviously, both the president and candidate Kerry feel the same way," he said.
Columbiana County's political leaders predict victory in the presidential election for their candidate, but for different reasons.
Jerry Ward, the Republican Party chairman, said Bush will win because county residents are more conservative that in other areas regardless of their party affiliation. County voters don't favor liberal issues such as partial-birth abortions, but are concerned about homeland security, he said.
Dennis Johnson, the Democratic Party chairman, said voters will favor Kerry because of the economy.
Ward predicts Bush will win by 8 percent or more.
Johnson said the vote will be close as usual in Columbiana County, and Kerry will win.
Concern for economy
Johnson says voters are concerned about jobs.
"The economy in our area has been hit pretty hard," Johnson said.
Many factories in or near southern Columbiana County have long been closed, and now factories in the northern portion of the county are closing, Johnson said.
But the chairmen say this race will be unlike any other in the county's history.
The charges and counter-charges exchanged by the presidential candidates "has kind of taken the fun out of it," Johnson said.
But the force of the national campaign isn't turning off voters; it's mobilizing them, they said. Republicans have planned for last-minute rallies, a blitz of calls and door-to-door reminders. Ward said Republicans have several phone banks going. The Democrats have seven to eight banks making calls from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
Democrats helped with registrations and absentee ballots. That's a political staple that's in high gear this year, and will make a difference, Johnson said. Democrats sent about 900 sample ballots to those who asked for an absentee ballot, he said.
In Mercer County, Democrats expanded their voter registration lead.
The push to boost participation in this year's presidential race has resulted in a 4,158 increase in registered voters since the primary and Democrats got the majority of the new participants.
The Mercer County election office reported that the Democrat registration rose from 34,936 to 36,752 while Republican voter rolls rose from 29,962 to 31,625.
Good for Kerry
Bob Lark, Democratic Party chairman, said the numbers bode well for Kerry. Mercer is among eight of Pennsylvania's counties to vote for the Democratic candidate for president in every election since 1980, he said. The state has 67 counties.
Even so, Lark stopped short of predicting a Kerry win in Mercer.
His Republican counterpart, the Rev. Donald Wilson, said he's optimistic that Bush can carry Mercer, but admits, "It's going to be really close."
Republicans may have picked up fewer new voters than the Democrats, but the Republicans didn't go out looking for people to register, he said. Those who signed up as Republicans came to the party on their own, which means they have a passion about the election and are more likely to vote, Wilson said.
Both parties will be active on Election Day.
Lark said 128 county committee members have promised to work that day.
Wilson said Republicans also will have people working.
Both men said they have little fear that residents might not get a chance to vote, despite concern on the county's part that 250 electronic voting machines may not be able to quickly handle a big turnout. The county has made paper ballots available at every precinct so people can mark a ballot by hand should there be a line at the poll and a voter chooses not to wait.
Lark said the lack of more machines might be a problem in the Shenango Valley, where a consolidation issue involving five municipalities is expected to bring out heavy numbers of voters.
Neither he nor Wilson expects any challenges to voters.
Hard at work
In Lawrence County, Vessella said it's difficult for him to assess how the presidential race is shaping up because both sides are working hard.
He said more people registered to vote in this election than ever before in the county and state.
"Probably the thing that is making it so active are the issues," including the Iraq conflict, rising prescription drug prices and education, he said.
Vessella said he doesn't expect any problems at the polls.
"We've never had problem in Lawrence County and I don't anticipate any now. I think if they send [lawyers/watchers] them here I think it's a waste of time," he said.
Lawrence GOP Chairman Norman DeGideo said the race will be close, but Bush will win the county.
"As a rule, [Republicans] didn't do very good in Lawrence County," he said. "But I think we are gaining now."
He said the party will have watchers at about 90 percent of the polls. While concerned about challenges to voters, DeGideo said most of the problems will be minor.
XContributors: David Skolnick, politics writer; Stephen Siff of the Trumbull staff; D.A. Wilkinson of the Salem bureau; Harold Gwin of the Sharon bureau; and Laure Cioffi of the New Castle bureau.