Topeka ? For several weeks, volunteers of varying political philosophies have been calling Kansans about voting.

The telephone calls should continue even after the polls open Tuesday. Partisans also expect to walk neighborhoods and knock on doors; they’ll bring advance voting ballots to homes and take them away to county election officials. They’ll drive people to polling places if necessary.

The candidates and their parties may spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to mold opinion through television advertising, but they often need shoe leather and personal contact to motivate citizens to vote.

With the governor’s office at stake, four other statewide positions on the ballot, a U.S. senator and four congressmen up for re-election, 125 Kansas House seats to be filled, and three Board of Education races to be decided this year, the candidates and parties have been working hard to get out their voters.

“This is the sort of stuff that is cutting edge now,” said Kari Austin, the state Republican Party’s executive director. “We used to do it really well, and we got away from it.”

Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh is predicting an average voter turnout, about 820,000 Kansans, or 51 percent of the 1.6 million registered. But officials in both parties expect thousands of volunteers to participate in get-out-the-vote efforts.

Advance voting appeal

Efforts intensified after Oct. 16, the first day election officials were allowed to mail advance ballots to potential voters. Those ballots are valid so long as they’re returned before polls close.

Some county election officials have said they’ve seen an increase in the number of people requesting advance ballots. In 2000, about 182,000 were cast, or 16.7 percent of the total, according to the secretary of state’s office.

“We’re mailing out a lot more advance ballots than in the past,” said Douglas County Clerk Patty Jaimes. “To me, that means the political parties are working hard to get the vote out.”

Austin said the state GOP is putting an intense effort into the 3rd Congressional District.

Noon today is the deadline to cast advance voting ballots in person at the Douglas County Courthouse.All advance voting ballots must be received in the County Clerk’s Office by 7 p.m. Tuesday.Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday. For an online list of polling sites, go to election.ljworld.com.For more information or if you need assistance voting, call 832-5267.

First, Republicans hope their candidate, Adam Taff, can unseat Democratic incumbent Dennis Moore. Secondly, Austin said, advance voting is relatively popular in Johnson County, where the population is far more mobile than some rural areas.

The state GOP used automated phone messages featuring President Bush to contact 85,000 Republicans in the 3rd District who received advance ballot applications.

The party mailed out 20,000 cards and planned to have volunteers walk neighborhoods to remind people to vote.

“We’re trying to concentrate on things that don’t cost a lot of money shoe leather, sweat equity,” she said.

But Austin said the rest of the state won’t be ignored.

GOP Tim Shallenburger’s gubernatorial campaign has had up to 50 volunteers a day calling potential voters.

“We can turn our base out,” Shallenburger said. “We’re good at that. We make sure they vote.”

Austin said such efforts are important because the GOP enjoys a significant advantage in registration. Nearly 743,000 voters are Republican, compared to 441,000 Democrats and 420,000 unaffiliated.

“Sometimes, it can be easy to take that advantage for granted,” Austin said.

Democrats are scrapping for votes as well.

State Chairman Tom Sawyer said Democrats may deliver 100,000 advance ballot voting applications statewide. Advance balloting is important, Sawyer said, because many people work 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and have little enough time to vote.

“This year’s effort is bigger than we’ve done in a long time,” Sawyer said.

Making sure ballots are returned can take time, energy and an attention to detail.

For example, Rep. Rocky Nichols, D-Topeka, said volunteers make sure people get their ballots, then encourage them to fill them out. In some cases, they’re collected and delivered by volunteers to election officials.

Sawyer said Democrats must have intense get-out-the-vote efforts because their registration disadvantage.

“The bigger the turnout, the better,” he said. “We want to make sure our Democrats get out and vote.”

On Election Day, volunteers in both parties plan their traditional poll watching.

In some cases, volunteers will try to contact voters who normally vote in the morning but haven’t been seen at the polling place by noon on Election Day. But Austin said such efforts require so much work that they can’t be done on a large scale.

Sawyer said an influx of anti-abortion and other activists on social issues into the Republican Party in the late 1980s and 1990s showed the importance of personal contact.

Austin noted that Republicans now train precinct committee people on get-out-the-vote efforts with a video that features footage of Ronald Reagan from the 1960s.

Austin said that when television began to have a big effect on campaigns, activists saw it as the way to reach people. Now, she said, they understand that followup is required voter by voter.

“It won’t double turnout,” she said. “But it may make the difference in who wins an election.”