Republicans, Democrats and generic get-out-the-vote groups all claim to be mobilizing small armies of volunteers and staff to dial phones, knock on doors and scour lists at voting places to track down voters who haven't made it to the polls.

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"Ohio is going to come down to the very last vote, so these efforts at the precincts and those helping people get to the polls could be essential to the outcome of the election," said Eric Rademacher, co-director of the Ohio Poll, put out by the University of Cincinnati.

The practice is called poll flushing or precinct flushing.

Polling places make lists of who has voted available to the public. (The lists will be viewed at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.) Then political operatives match those lists against their own lists of voters likely to back their candidate.

Then they start calling, and even driving those who haven't voted to the polls.

Flushing is an old campaign tactic, Rademacher said, but this is the first year it will be so widespread.

"We've never had an effort this well coordinated on both sides and ... that included many paid staff and volunteers. It's an overwhelming number who'll be working the precincts in Ohio," he said.

Statewide, the Republican Party expects 12,000 volunteers.

Those volunteers will be checking voting lists, calling and knocking, said Chris McNulty, executive director of the Ohio Republican Party.

"It'll be person to person, neighbor to neighbor," he said.

The Hamilton County Republican Party will have about 1,000 volunteers flushing out procrastinating voters, said Greg Hartmann, chairman of the Hamilton County Bush-Cheney campaign.

"We'll be knocking on doors starting at 10 a.m. and we'll change shifts at 2 in the afternoon," he said.

"Our supporters are going to be out working, rain or shine. This is by far the biggest get-out-the-vote, grass-roots campaign we've ever had in Hamilton County. There's a lot of attention on us."

Democratic officials in Ohio declined to give total numbers of volunteers. Dan Trevas, a spokesman, said that would be like giving away battle positions to the enemy.

"The Republican Party would love for us to tell them how many we have working for us," he said.

The party also is relying on unions, neighborhood groups and powerful non-party organizations, such as America Coming Together (ACT).

Jess Goode, a spokesman for ACT-Ohio, says it will have 12,000 people - many of them paid workers - visiting voters door-to-door and on the telephone in Ohio.

"Our mission is to mobilize and energize," Goode said.

"We will offer rides, but we're primarily focused on talking to people at their doors and reminding people that it's Election Day."

E-mail damos@enquirer.com