In Florida, an all-out race already

"Have you registered and convinced 537 people on how important their vote is yet?" the hand-lettered sign exhorts assembled union workers and volunteers at 2700 Biscayne Boulevard.

No one needs to explain that number - the difference in votes between George Bush and Al Gore in Florida in 2000 - here at the Miami headquarters of the Democratic organization America Coming Together. The canvassers - from the new group Caribbean Power Vote and Moveon.org - know they have a tough, hot day ahead of them, knocking on doors in Little Haiti and Coral Gables, looking for new voters to register, and identifying people's top issues.

"They tell us, 'No matter what, Bush will steal my vote, I won't vote until there's a change,' " says Rose Micheline Assinthe, a nursing assistant originally from Haiti, on loan from her union to work as a canvasser. "I tell them, in Creole, 'We need to focus on fraud, but don't look backward. If you want Bush out, you must vote.' "

Across town, another hand- lettered sign on the door of a locked office building announces that it's "Super Saturday," with a number to call to be let in. Inside, it's a scene repeated on this day across the state - Bush campaign volunteers on the phone, calling other Republicans and getting them to sign on as volunteers too. As election day approaches, these people will also be out canvassing, signing up new voters, as well as working the phones and e-mail, making sure Bush voters turn out.

There are still 161 days to go until Nov. 2, but the volunteers and paid workers, some from other states, are multiplying by the day in this battleground called Florida - getting ready to burst forth in the fall like the cicadas to the north.

If there's one thing every activist here has in common, it's that seared memory of 2000, when Bush won the state, and thus the election, by just 537 votes. It has given both presidential campaigns and their unaffiliated support networks, like America Coming Together, a concrete incentive to go to the ends of the earth - or at least the state - for every possible vote.

"In my 15 years in politics, I've never seen anything on this scale," says John Hennelly, state campaign director for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). "To win Florida, you have to do everything and do everything well."

To date, statewide polls give no one a reason to relax. The latest, taken May 17 to 19 by American Research Group, shows President Bush at 47 percent, Democrat John Kerry at 46 percent, and Ralph Nader at 3 percent. Overall, Democratic registration is ahead of Republican, 44 percent versus 40 percent, but since 2000, Republicans have outpaced Democrats in new registrations.

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