Republican volunteer Elvis Ridley, left, mans the phone bank Thursday at GOP headquarters. At right, volunteers stuff envelopes with literature at their Democratic party headquarters. They are, from left, Dotty Weaber, Barbara Humphrey, Ron Rogers and Paul Hentz.
Barack Obama and Mitt Romney don't seem to be paying much attention to Pennsylvania.
According to some polls, the Keystone State is just far enough in the President's pocket that the candidates apparently believe their energies are better spent in more pivotal states, such as Virginia, Florida and Ohio.
Still, the campaigns are sending some pretty big guns — Vice President Joe Biden, for instance, and First Lady hopeful Ann Romney — to do what they can to secure the vote.
Locally, Republicans and Democrats are both jockeying to ensure they get people out and voting in this presidential election.
"We treat every election as if it were a battle," local Democratic Party chairwoman Sally Lyall said Thursday. "I know the polls look pretty good right now for the President, but we don't take it for granted.
"We could be 15 points ahead in the polls right now, and we'd treat it like a tie. The ground game is what we do."
Republican Party chairman Scott Boyd agreed that votes on Nov. 6, not polls in October, will be the clincher.
"It's a cliché, but the only poll that really matters is the poll that will be taken on Election Day," he said. "I've certainly seen polls that have Pennsylvania very, very close."
Boyd said the local GOP will do whatever it can to push undecided voters toward Romney's camp.
"I don't think there's any rocket science to it," he said. "We're knocking on doors, we're making phone calls and making sure people who need an absentee ballot get one — and making sure they return them."
The last few days before the election are crucial, he said.
"A lot of times, presidential elections and statewide elections in Pennsylvania are typically a couple of percentage points on either side of 50," Boyd said. "Candidly, there's a lot of folks out there who don't live and breathe this like we insiders do, and they make up their minds in the last week or 10 days, maybe even the last day or two.
"When you're dealing in margins of 1 or 2 percent, those folks who haven't decided yet can make a difference," he added. "I firmly believe Pennsylvania is still in play, and we're not going to rest until we do everything in our power to make sure that every person who can vote gets out and votes."
At the Lancaster County Republican Committee headquarters on Thursday, Roger Trump was busy conducting phone surveys of voters.
He was asking, among other questions, whether the voter would choose Obama or Romney if the election were held today and whether they approve or disapprove of Obama's performance as president.
"It's just an important matter that's important to all Pennsylvanians. I'm trying to do my part to see what we can do to get victory," said Trump, 55, a GOP committeeman in Lititz.
Lyall said there's a bit of a lull right now at Democratic headquarters. Training sessions for poll watchers and greeters just concluded, she said, and phone banks are scheduled to gear up next week.
Dottie Weaber, 65, a retired preschool teacher from Manheim Township, spent part of Thursday preparing packets for poll watchers and greeters.
She said she's involved in the political process — she's also helping the campaign of Tom O'Brien, the Democrat running against state Sen. Lloyd Smucker — because she believes in the tenets of the Democratic Party.
Though the presidential election might be at the forefront of most voters' minds, Weaber said she believes state and congressional offices have more of a direct impact on people's lives.
"We're not just about national candidates here," she said. "We have our ground team at work. The committee people are organizing their teams.
"We're down to the wire. Now, the intense precinct work begins."
Local Democratic candidates have been going door to door since June, Lyall said — and every request for local support has included a push for the president.
Yard signs showing support for the Obama/Biden team are flying out the door, Lyall said.
"We cannot keep signs in stock. We order them in by the 300 and 500, and they go right out the door," she said. "We have a waiting list of about seven pages — people are just waiting for them to come in."
Boyd said a similar hubbub can be seen at the GOP base of operations.
"We're so busy at headquarters, we don't have time to turn around sometimes," he said.
"I'm not sure how many tens of thousands of yard signs have gone out the door. We went through over 10,000 bumper stickers. There's a lot of energy in Lancaster County."
