Time to get the flock to the well

It's E-Day minus 24 hours, which means there's only one thing left to do if you're Dave Buhler or Ralph Becker and you want to be the next mayor of Salt Lake City:

Get out the vote.

It's all over but the voting.

"We've sent out all the mailers, we've knocked on all the doors, we've identified our supporters," says Becker campaign manager David Everitt, "but if people don't show up and vote, it doesn't matter, right?"

He will get no argument on that score from Barbara Thornton, volunteer coordinator for the Buhler campaign.

"We've distributed 30,000 brochures throughout the whole city, we've put out all our yard signs and all the rest," says Thornton. "Now it's down to making sure people vote. Our game plan has always been a big get out the vote push at the end."

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But if the stretch-run views concerning the importance of voter turnout are the same for both mayoral finalists, their game plans about how best to drive voters to the polls tomorrow are not.

Fitting, isn't it?

The Becker campaign plans a hands-on approach that involves going straight to people's doors if necessary.

This kind of hands-on election day strategy, David Everitt explains, is called poll-watching and tomorrow the Becker camp will have 100 or more volunteers assigned to watch specific polling stations.

"We go see if people who said they'd vote (for Becker) have voted," he explains. "We can't see how they voted but we can see if they have voted."

And if their name isn't on the polling station register?

"Usually we'll go right to their door and knock," says Everitt. "We encourage them to vote. We'll give them rides if they want."

But no money.

"Nope. Bribes are illegal," he smiles.

"They (the poll watchers) are each given a list of names they are responsible for," the campaign manager explains. "They have ownership of that list. That's their flock. They have to get their flock to the well."

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Meanwhile, over at the Buhler Camp, the thinking, Barbara Thornton explains, is that the telephone is quicker and just as effective.

"We have this big list," she says. "These are names of people we've already identified (as Buhler supporters). They've already made up their mind. It doesn't matter where they are, we just call them and remind them it's time to vote. And of course if they have questions about where to vote or anything like that, we'll help them with that."

The big list will get "chopped up" tomorrow and parceled out to dozens of volunteers, all of whom are expected to have phone-ear by the end of the day.

"The volunteer just reads from a basic script — 'Hi, we're calling from the Dave Buhler campaign, and we just want to make sure you get out to vote today,'" says Thornton. "There are thousands and thousands of names to call, just a lot of people. It's exciting to look at the big numbers in a campaign like this."

Second only to looking at the big numbers if they actually vote for the person they said they were going to.

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Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.