As the campaigns end, Democrats and Republicans focus on turnout

With just five days before most of Minnesota's voters go to the polls, candidates for major statewide offices are shifting the focus of their campaigns. Topping the agenda late in the game are efforts to make sure core supporters cast ballots.

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In a year in which party leaders expect a drop off in voter participation from the presidential election two years ago, turnout can make a huge difference in the outcome. With that in mind, both Democrats and Republicans are working every angle to ensure voter participation.

Motivating key voting blocs is particularly important to Democrats, given their party's disastrous showing in the midterm election four years ago. On Wednesday morning, every Democrat on the statewide ticket and many others gathered on the lawn of the State Capitol to launch a statewide bus tour.

"Are we going to win on November 4th?" DFL Party Chair Ken Martin asked. "Are we powered up and ready to win?"

Democrats hope the bus tour featuring Gov. Mark Dayton, U.S. Sen. Al Franken and Minnesota House Majority Leader Erin Murphy will bring some energy to the closing days of the campaign. But the real work on getting out the vote is happening in union halls and campaign offices across the state, where 400 organizers hired by the DFL Party, the candidates and affiliated groups is scouring voter rolls.

At a union hall in Little Canada, Monica Weber is organizing volunteers who are going out to knock on doors for DFL candidates. Her goal is to identify core backers and ensure that they vote.

"We talk to people and we're able to go through and see if they're supporting us and see if they voted early," Weber said. "Because if they voted early, we're not going to talk to them again. We just go on from there."

The DFL Party has always emphasized the "boots on the ground" approach when it comes to campaigning. But this year, the party is spending more time and money on get out the vote efforts, Martin said.

Martin notes that both Dayton and Franken won their first terms only after statewide recounts. Democrats lost several key contests in 2010 when their core supporters stayed home, he said, and are determined to keep that from happening again.

"In midterm elections, our biggest enemy as Democrats is the base not showing up," Martin said. "For us, the get out the vote operation is absolutely the antidote to voter apathy."

One way the party has tried to boost turnout is by bringing in nationally known Democrats including Bill and Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden and first lady Michelle Obama.

Republicans also are making an extra effort to turn out the vote.

Among the GOP organizers is Ryan Cahill, who is calling Republican and Independent voters from the Republican Party's Eagan office — one of 18 across Minnesota. With a cell phone in one hand and an iPad in another, Cahill is goes through a script, trying to determine how people on the other end of the line are going to vote.

"First question, can we count on your vote for Mike McFadden, John Kline, Jeff Johnson and for state Rep. Tony Albright?" Cahill asks one voter. "Great, we really appreciate the support."

Republicans are investing more this year in get out the vote efforts than in past elections, said Matt Pagano, political director for the Republican Party of Minnesota. He's pleased with the energy he sees at offices like the one in Eagan.

"A lot of the races for Legislature and statewide in the last several cycles have been very, very close," Pagano said. "So when you look at the races that are determined by a few hundred votes, this is the difference."

Both parties have been encouraging people to vote early. A new state law allowing "no excuse absentee voting" allows people to vote by mail or at a polling place before Election Day. Both sides say the measure allows them to bank votes early and concentrate their efforts on those who have yet to vote. As of last week more than 70,000 people had already voted.