CROSS PLAINS, Wis. (AP) — At this stage of the choiceThe arguments have been made, the airwaves flooded with advertisements, the inboxes and doors filled with brochures. What remains is leave the vote.

It’s a crucial step that can make or break campaigns, turning Americans into voters by pushing them to the polls — or the mailbox, or the ballot drop box. with your choices.

This year, Democrats are relying on a traditional strategy of targeted phone calls, text messages and door knocking, by the party and its allies, to encourage turnout in the race for Vice President Kamala Harris. Former President Donald Trump has outsourced a large part of the republican operation to groups like América PAC, the organization supported by the billionaire Elon Muskwho has taken the unorthodox and possibly illegal step of giving away 1 million dollars a day in cash prizes.

Now the two sides are going head to head to get their voters out of the disputed states:

Kathy Moran never thought she would be standing on the street at dusk, political pamphlets in a bag slung over her shoulder, trudging from door to door trying to persuade people to vote.

But Moran, a 64-year-old retired employment lawyer, said on a cool late October night that she could no longer sit on the sidelines.

“With the revocation of Roe v. Wadesomething I couldn’t imagine, I just had to get involved,” he said as he walked the streets of Cross Plains, a town of about 4,000 people on the outskirts of Madison, the liberal capital of Wisconsin.

Democrats hope volunteers like Moran will make a difference in undecided states like Wisconsin, where four of the last six presidential elections were decided by 21,000 votes or less.

Democrats’ approach to getting out the vote is clear: They are drawing on a vast network of activists, volunteers, Democratic Party loyalists and others to spread them across the country and ensure their voters go to the polls.

That America PAC is doing for Trump it is less clear.

America PAC is targeting infrequent voters in Wisconsin by canvassing neighborhoods and sending mailings and digital and text ads, organization spokesman Andrew Romeo said.

However, America PAC declined a request from The Associated Press to observe the work in person.

Republicans have privately expressed concerns about whether America’s PAC is doing enough to turn out the vote for Trump at crucial times. states on the battlefield. Whatever your methods, More Republicans are voting early than in past elections, another sign of great enthusiasm.

“A get-out-the-vote operation cannot turn a leap into a landslide,” said Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler. “But he can absolutely turn a 50-50 race into a 49.5-50.5 race.”

Moran said he takes between 8,000 and 14,000 steps on a typical night of polling and meets mostly Harris voters while knocking on the doors of homes decorated with skeletons, tombstones and a few political signs.

A woman refuses to talk to Moran, saying through the closed glass door that it’s “none of her business.” Another man says he already voted but didn’t say who.

Another sees his “Harris/Walz” and “,la” buttons, smiles and says, “I see you’re with Harris.” He assures her that everyone in her house will vote for her.

Moran enters notes into an app so committed Harris voters won’t be bothered again.

The Harris campaign has more than 40,000 volunteers in addition to a staff of 220 people working in 32 field offices across the state. The campaign says its volunteers and staff have knocked on more than one million doors, including more than 100,000 last weekend alone, and made two million phone calls.

“The running game is very, very busy,” said state Sen. Freddie Powell Sims, a Democrat from Dawson. “We knock on doors every day, but the communities are huge. “There is a long way to go, but we have extremely diligent volunteers who come out and put their all into this race.”

Sims said she’s not sure who will win in Georgia because she’s seen similar enthusiasm on the ground 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 past three months.

At one event, eight women in matching pink Trump jackets with ’47’ emblazoned on the sleeves and personalized engravings of their names marched to 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 her supporters to rally their friends to vote for Trump.

Kim Burnette signed up for a phone bank with the Trump campaign this year, calling infrequent voters who are registered as Republicans.

“A lot of people are saying they’re going to vote,” Burnette said. “It looks good.”

Candace Duvall drove about 30 miles to the event and showed up decked out in gold Trump merchandise: She patched sparkly letters spelling out his name on her T-shirt and wore earrings displaying her mugshot. She rushed to the polls on the first day of early voting to vote for Trump, but is still receiving a deluge of text messages, calls and printed flyers from his campaign.

“He’s our only chance,” Duvall said. “I truly believe he was chosen by God, and I believe this is a fight between good and evil.”

Camilla Moore and Lisa Babbage, president and vice president of the Georgia Republican Black Council, also showed up to support Trump’s women.

The couple has been mobilizing black voters in South Fulton through events in recent months.

“This time it’s been easier than ever,” Moore said.

People are less shy about supporting Trump now than they were in 2020, Moore said. They are more open to conversation while defending the former president.

Charles Benson, 68, of Kinston, North CarolinaHe said he is 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, emails from candidates continue to fill his inbox.

“I’m ready for this to be over,” Benson said. “I’m tired of getting that stuff out of the mail every day.”

Emma Macomber, 76, of New Bern, another Trump supporter at the Greenville rally, said she has been contacted regularly, mostly through text messages, asking for political donations and to make sure she votes.

Macomber said he already cast his vote and has made some contributions.

“I want this to end, but I’m afraid it will end,” she said. “Because I don’t know what’s in the future and I think everyone is afraid of the unknown.”

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Kramon reported from Atlanta, Robertson from Raleigh, North Carolina, and Mascaro from Washington.