The rapping of fists upon doorways echoed throughout the hallways of West Circle Complex residence halls on Thursday night as members of the MSU College Democrats made one of their final campus walks before Election Day.

Armed with dozens of pro-Democrat pamphlets, stickers and buttons as well as a list of students identified as backers of presidential candidate John Kerry, a handful of College Democrats trekked from room to room in the hopes of solidifying support and to remind residents to vote today.

"My knuckles are permanently bruised from this semester," said Molly Messinger, treasurer for the MSU College Democrats, as she knocked on a door in Landon Hall. "When we first started, it was to get visibility. Now, getting closer to the election, it's a reminder to get out and vote."

In the final days before the presidential election, Messinger joined hundreds of other students in kicking the Democratic party campaign on campus into high gear. For the last few months, many students have balanced work, school and a social life with campaign activities - debunking the common stereotype that younger voters, such as the college population, are politically apathetic.

"I'm on hyper-drive," College Democrats President Randy Neice said.

"Between working and taking 14 credits and this, I don't know how I do it.

"I'm glad the election hasn't happened yet, but I'll be glad when it does. It's been pretty hectic."

Neice, a political theory and constitutional democracy and international relations senior, said his organization has about 300 volunteers who regularly helped out with the Democratic campaign on campus this fall.

With only a few days left before the election, Neice said the volunteers were "vamping it up" on campus with plans to knock on all the doors of the 6,000 students who had been previously identified as John Kerry supporters when registering to vote.

"People have finally realized how important this is - not just to get out and vote, but to get out and affect other people's votes," he said. "We're going to see a lot more students voting than what is the norm."

Although the College Democrats spent the semester centering its energy on campus, MSU Students for Kerry recruited students to work directly for the Kerry/John Edwards campaign. Volunteers from the groups said the two organizations compliment each other by having differing focuses while maintaining the same objective.

"Physically, we don't work very close together, but the goal is the same - to get out the vote," Payal Ravani, an intern with the Kerry/Edwards campaign.

On Sunday, Ravani helped at a Kerry/Edwards campaign phone bank. She said the pace of work had picked up in the final days and she predicted that Election Day would be even more stressful.

"It's just really hectic because we have so many volunteers coming in at different times during the day and the phones are always ringing," she said.

Volunteers said one of the highlights of campaigning this semester was helping schedule guest speakers such as liberal film maker Michael Moore to amplify the buzz on campus about the upcoming election. But some said it was their smaller, daily efforts that helped their cause the most.

"It's just the consistency with which we've done all of our events," said Stephen Purchase, communications director for the College Democrats. "Every day since the beginning of the year, we've had something - whether it be phone calls or door knocks. Anybody can have a big event on a day, but it takes a lot of work and dedication to keep up this consistent, day-after-day effort."

Exhausted by this type of work, some volunteers said they were looking forward to taking a breather after the election is over.

"It'll be nice after the election to just take a nap," Purchase said. "We've been working on this election race for almost two years."

But some said the need to keep students in the political game won't stop once the polls close tonight - regardless of which candidate wins.

"Either way, you have to get ready for the election cycle coming up in two years," Neice said. "We'll focus on building membership and cropping up new leadership.

"Win or lose, we just have to keep working."