Sign, sign, everywhere a sign! say local political parties about last-minute campaigning

It's the final push for local political activists who've been donating their time and energy to the campaigns of John McCain and Barack Obama.

For Republicans, the next few days will include "sign-waving on street corners on Hilton Head Island," said Tom Hatfield, vice chairman of the Beaufort County Republican Party. Those signs will push the candidacies of John McCain, U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, he said.

Party volunteers also will be making phone calls trying to get voters out to the polls, but given the intense interest in the presidential contest, Hatfield said he doesn't think that will be as much of a task as it is in off-year elections.

"Everyone who can vote is voting," he said.

Local Democrats also are revving up for last-minute get-out-the-vote efforts.

"We're continuing to call people, reminding them to vote and arranging rides if they need rides to the polls," said David Rice, president of the Beaufort County Democratic Party South of the Broad Club.

Alan McDonald of Bluffton said he's printed and distributed more than 2,000 pieces of campaign literature supporting Democrat Bob Conley, who's challenging incumbent Lindsey Graham for one of South Carolina's U.S. Senate seats.

Some local activists are leaving South Carolina, where McCain is favored heavily to win, to help out in other states where the outcome is less certain.

Holger Opderbeck of Daufuskie Island is making the four-hour-plus drive to the Raleigh area to help the Obama campaign in North Carolina, a swing state in this election. Opderbeck said he would be staying with a relative and working at a Democratic campaign office in Cary, N.C.

But no matter where politically motivated residents go, getting out the vote activities are largely the same.

"Most likely I'll be going door to door, encouraging people to vote, and on Election Day, I may drive people to the polls," said Opderbeck.