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After weeks of door-to-door canvassing, tabling in Red Square and calling undecided voters through phone banks, the campaign efforts of student political organizations on campus will come to an end tonight. And the GU College Democrats and Republicans have been making their rounds perhaps as frantically as the presidential hopefuls themselves.

“We all know that we can rest on Wednesday, but right now we have an important job to do,” said Justin Hawkins (COL ’11), member of the College Republicans and the Georgetown Students for McCain-Palin. “Virginia is an important swing state, and our close proximity allows us to play an influential role in [the Getting Out the Vote] efforts and energizing likely voters. . I know that quite a few of my friends were in Virginia this afternoon [Monday] canvassing around McCain headquarters. I know of many people who are skipping classes and other routine weekly activities in our last push until Tuesday.”

According to Chris Dodge (SFS ’10), the GUCD communications director, the College Democrats will make their final canvassing push on Election Day.

“[Yesterday] we had several hours of phone banking, canvassing and visibility (holding signs outside metro stops),” he said. “[Today] we’ll be doing visibility work along all the stops on the blue and orange [Metro] lines in North[ern] Virginia. We’ll be having another two-hour phone bank and one final shift of canvassing [today].”

Once the day is over, Dodge said, the festivities will move back to Georgetown.

“We’ll be having a massive watch party in both Sellinger [Lounge] and Hoya Court. We’re expecting well over 500 people to attend between the two venues. We’ll have games, food and big screens to watch results come in, starting at 6 p.m. when the first polls close.”

Paul Courtney (COL ’11), GUCR director of campus affairs, observed a positive student response to the last minute efforts made by the College Republicans on campus yesterday.

“This afternoon [Monday], on the final day before Election Day, College Republicans tabled in Red Square as part of our final push before the election,” he said. “We encountered a lot of optimistic people who are going to cast their ballot for the McCain-Palin ticket . ranging from students on campus to an alumna visiting campus from Ohio.

In addition, Courtney said GUCR will be hosting their debate watch in Village C Alumni Lounge from 8 p.m. to midnight.

elanie Pitkin (COL ’11), a member of GUCD, said that students will also be helping out at the polls today in an effort to get as many voters out as possible.

“The people volunteering at the polling places, who are called comfort volunteers, will hold spots for people in line who need to go to the bathroom or something, hand out hot chocolate and answer any questions if people in line haven’t yet decided,” she said. “We also arrange rides for the voters if they don’t have their own.”

In this final day, neither group has given up hope for their candidate.

“We’re thrilled with how [the campaigning] went,” Dodge said. “The effort of Georgetown students this election cycle has been unprecedented. We estimate that Georgetown students will have knocked on at least 25,000 doors in Virginia for Barack Obama and many thousands more in Ohio.”

“The election is undoubtedly going to be close,” Courtney said. “But there’s no doubt in any of our minds that John McCain can pull off a win [tonight].”

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