With many Floridians having decided who to support, the campaigns are focused on making sure their backers actually cast ballots

TALLAHASSEE — With tight races at the top of the ticket and Florida being, well, Florida, Democrats, Republicans and allied organizations are putting voter-turnout efforts into overdrive entering the last full week before Election Day.

Both sides are chest-thumping about how well-positioned they are to motivate their bases.

Those on the ground, going door-to-door through neighborhoods, reinforce these claims — saying voters they talk to aren’t going to let this election pass them by.

“People are fairly jazzed up,” said Darlene Emanuel-Tran, 32, a Republican Party volunteer doing voter outreach in Pasco County.

Emanuel-Tran said her interaction with voters over the past two months — either by phone or in doorways — is brief. Most say they plan to vote — or already have — and she drops off campaign material promoting Republican gubernatorial contender Ron DeSantis or U.S. Senate candidate, Gov. Rick Scott.

“The voters I talk to seem to understand that it’s crucial, really critical that they turn out,” she said.

Some Democratic activists courting voters say they make it personal when urging support for DeSantis’ rival, Andrew Gillum, and Scott opponent, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.

“When I go to the door, I tell them Andrew Gillum will fight for $15-an-hour minimum wage, more health care and to make sure teachers get more money,” said Margalie Williams, 59, a certified nurse assistant canvassing in Miami, North Miami and Miami Beach.

“You know, a lot of people are still making $9 an hour. They listen. And they say they’ll vote,” Williams added.

Both sides also are pulling in political celebrities to fire up partisans.

Former Vice President Joe Biden campaigned with Gillum and Nelson, current Vice President Mike Pence was in Jacksonville with DeSantis, and President Donald Trump is scheduled for a Halloween night visit to Fort Myers, where he’ll be joined by Scott and DeSantis.

But many Floridians already appear set on a candidate in the nationally-watched U.S. Senate and governor’s races. Most polls show that less than 10 percent of voters are undecided on the contests, with Gillum and Nelson holding narrow edges.

With so few voters left to be persuaded, that has heightened the parties’ focus on turnout — making sure that voters they are counting on actually cast ballots, either by mail, through early voting or going to polling places Nov. 6.

The Republican National Committee, which is coordinating that party’s voter efforts, has 90 paid staff scattered across Florida, backed by 3,000 volunteers. They had made 4 million voter contacts by last week, a level not reached two years ago until Election Day.

The party outreach is enhanced by such groups as the Libre Initiative, which is targeting Hispanic voters, and Americans for Prosperity, the political advocacy organization funded by the billionaire conservative Koch brothers, who share many views with Republican candidates.

Similarly, Republicans say they feel good about initial vote-by-mail numbers, with totals running ahead of returns from 2014, which the GOP considered a marquee year for success in Florida.

Almost 3.4 million vote-by-mail ballots have been requested by Floridians, with more than 1.4 million returned by Friday. All told, 2 million votes were cast in Florida by the weekend — by mail and through early voting — with Republican voters holding a 43-40 percentage point edge over Democrats.

An unknown, of course, is whether these early and vote-by-mail voters will result in lower-than-expected turnout on Election Day, which could especially hurt Democrats banking on big voting numbers.

Some analysts forecast that more than 7 million votes will be cast this year, which could result in a turnout of around 53 percent, slightly better than the 51 percent in 2014, the last midterm election year.

Democrats, counting on a blue wave powered by voter frustration with Trump's administration and the Republican-controlled Congress, may not be seeing the turnout they want — yet.

But they point out that Democratic-heavy urban counties across the state, particularly those in South Florida, have been slow to report early voting and vote-by-mail totals — blunting signs of strength.

“We have been focused on turning out sporadic voters on the Democratic side,” said Ashley Walker, director of For Our Future Florida, part of the national voter effort funded by billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, backed by teachers and public employees’ unions.

Steyer has put $5 million into the Florida effort aimed mostly at millennial voters; he also gave Gillum another $2 million this month.

“We’ve targeted voters with digital advertising, we’ve sent them texts, then follow up with door-to-door canvassing. It’s really a layered effect,” said Walker, whose organization has 1,300 staff working in 20 Florida counties, and counted 300,000 doors knocked on last week.

Another organization backed by Steyer, NextGen Florida, is driving voter turnout on college campuses, helped by 120 staff and 1,130 volunteers across the state. Along with text messages to prospective voters, NextGen is airing digital ads on Hulu, Spotify and other platforms.

While such old-school tactics as canvassing neighborhoods for voters endure, digital has become dominant for both parties.

The Florida Democratic Party, for example, was able to find Puerto Rican voters who transplanted to Central Florida following Hurricane Maria after buying advertising data from companies that advertise on the online game Candy Crush.

At least some of those playing Candy Crush on their mobile phones in Puerto Rico were found to be now playing in Florida — and they soon began getting Democratic get-out-the-vote messages.

“The phrase we’re using internally — what we’re telling our volunteers — is leave it all on the field this year,” said Ed Gilhuly, spokesman for Service Employees International Union Florida, a Democratic-allied organization involved in turnout efforts.