SOUTH BEND — Local Democrats burned the midnight oil Monday night as the final push for vote hit high gear. That push included help from hundreds of local volunteers.

The polls open at 6 a.m. across the state, but the push for last minute support was well underway more than 24 hours before. It included one last stop in Michiana from both campaigns.

Sen. Hillary Clinton's daughter Chelsea visited a Cinco de Mayo celebration in Goshen, then stopped to thank volunteers staffing a phone bank at Julia's Restaurant in Elkhart. She also spoke to students at Saint Mary's College.

Sen. Barack Obama's wife, Michelle, made a campaign stop in Gary.

Both campaigns stumped hard Monday for every last Hoosier vote, and they weren't alone. In South Bend, and across the area, two armies of volunteers were working non-stop to help get out the vote for their candidate.

From phone calls to door to door canvassing last minute stumping hit overdrive.

Mary Jo Tomaselli drove all the way from outside Cleveland, Ohio, to work the phones at Clinton's South Bend campaign headquarters. It's a role she's become accustomed to in the last two months.

"I've campaigned in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and now in South Bend," she said. "And from here I'm headed to Portland, Oregon."

She says she felt a duty to help out because of Clinton's health care plan.

"My sister has breast cancer," she said. "She needs Hillary's plan."

Others who live much closer simply dropped by Hillary headquarters to lend a helping hand.

"I was on the fence because I liked both candidates," said one volunteer as he prepared to canvass door to door on Clinton's behalf. "But I said it's getting close. It's time to get off the fence!"

It's precisely the "grassroots" effort Clinton praised and pleaded for during a campaign stop in South Bend on Sunday.

It was the same message her daughter brought to volunteers in Elkhart Monday night.

"Thank you all so much for supporting my mom and supporting her in the last hours," she told the excited crowd of about 60 supporters. Cameras clicked as she posed for pictures and signed autographs for admirers, who promised to work hard to get out the vote on Tuesday.

At Obama headquarters in downtown South Bend, the phones were manned, too.

"I'm calling for the Obama campaign," volunteer Peggy Vanderberg said as she began each call. Vanderberg made her own lengthy trip to South Bend from Grand Rapids.

When asked why it was important for her to help out, she replied "Because Indiana's important! Michigan needed to get their voices heard, so I'm trying to help in Indiana to do that."

"Barack's backers" weren't shy about hitting the streets either.

One group of self proclaimed "Obama mamas" had their own clear message to send.

"He's in for change," said Dorothy Tkindt, of South Bend, who stood with signs and streamers in hand at the corner of Main Street and Jefferson Boulevard in downtown South Bend. "He's something different than we've had."

Some Obama supporters even campaigned in more unusual ways.

Jesse Cao dressed up in an American eagle costume, and stood for more than eight hours at the corner of Main Street and LaSalle Avenue with Obama signs in hand. He made the trip down to South Bend six weeks ago from Lansing, Michigan, where he recently lost his job on the assembly line at a GM plant. Two years ago he also lost his son, Spc. Justin Smith, to a roadside bomb planted by insurgents in Iraq.

He says, silly costumes aside, this is his way of "making it right."

"When I read about [Obama] and what he stood for, it gave me that motivation to come down here and make it happen," he said.

And it's not just the Clinton camp or Obama mamas working hard to make those votes count. Local Democrats are also pushing to get out the vote in the race for governor.

The push from all the campaigns is the same: drive voters to the polls, whether that means picking up a phone or physically picking them up to take them to their polling place.

Now, as the clock ticks toward "decision day," one thing is clear.

"It will be a lot of hustle and bustle tomorrow, that's for sure," said Tomaselli.

All the campaigns will be running from dawn until dusk Tuesday. Phone banks and door to door canvassing will continue, and all the campaigns say they will provide rides to the polls for any voter who needs one.

Polling places are open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and all voters must have a valid state issued photo ID.

For more election headlines and voter resources, go to WSBT.com's Campaign ‘08 section.