Hard-Fought Battle in Hard-Hit Ohio

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The Final Campaign Weekend in Ohio

A look at what Democrats and Republicans of Lake County, Ohio did in the final weekend of campaigning to get out the vote.

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The GOP office is quieter. In the absence of any volunteer schedules, it is dominated by a sign with pictures of rifles and the caption "If you want to keep these, vote McCain." A member of the party's county board, David May, was upset about the lack of communication with the national party. As residents came in for Palin tickets, volunteers made no attempt to recruit them to help the campaign.

This weekend, the office was closed by 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, while Obama's office had half a dozen people working past 8.

The most active volunteer in the GOP office, Carol Myers, who moved to town four years ago from Alabama to care for her grandchildren, did not get involved until September, after the media's coverage of Palin moved her to action. She had hoped the campaign would have done more canvassing. "I'm 65, and if I do one more thing in my life, it's to put God back in our country," she said.

Obama's challenge in Ross County was clearly demonstrated among a group of 60-something residents who meet each morning for coffee after walking together. The group has chewed over his candidacy enough that some now refer to him as "Barack," yet it is still trying to come to terms with the prospect of his being president.

One, Rita Hawkins, a retired social service worker, calls Obama a "visionary," says the Republicans have "got so far off base" with social issues, and doesn't understand McCain's attacks over William Ayers, the former radical with whom Obama sat on the boards of nonprofit groups, saying she has sat on boards with all sorts of people herself.

But she is outnumbered in the group. Her brother, Steve Zurmehly, 61, a farmer, is voting for McCain even though Hawkins argues that he has lacked health insurance coverage his whole life and might benefit from Obama's proposals. "Health care has been an issue for so many years, and no one's going to do anything," he said.

Hawkins's sister Diane McDonald, an occupational therapist, is voting for McCain even though she thinks Obama is "articulate, intelligent, unwavering."

"So why don't you vote for him?" Hawkins said.

"Because it doesn't mean I believe in his politics," McDonald said. "A lot of women have gotten in trouble because of men like that."

Back at the Obama office, the volunteers have been discussing how they would feel if Obama won the presidency but lost Ohio. "I'd be very disappointed," Simkins said. "I'd be happy if he won, but I'd be disappointed if he lost Ohio. We've all worked so hard."