PORTLAND (AP) - With ballots in the mail and Election Day looming, political activists all over Oregon are gearing up for what promises to be one of the largest and most bitter get-out-the-vote campaigns the state has ever seen.

In the next two weeks, thanks to Oregon's still-swinging status, voters of all political stripes will be bombarded with doorbell ringers and porch leafleteers, phone-banking and mass e-mails, all aimed at turning out enough voters to win the state's prized seven electoral votes for either President Bush or Democratic challenger John Kerry.

Polls suggest the Oregon race is too close to call, with some giving an edge to Kerry, and others giving Bush as much as a 5-point lead. That's given the state - along with Nevada and New Mexico - status as one of the few Western states still considered up for grabs.

"This will be the biggest, deepest ground war Oregon has ever seen," said Scott Ballo, spokesman for America Coming Together, a liberal umbrella group that says it has registered 46,000 Oregonians this election season. "Wherever there is a progressive voter, they will be hearing from us."

The Republicans say they are also spoiling for a get-out-the-vote fight.

"Everyone talks about voter registration numbers, but at the end of the day, it matters who actually casts their ballot," said Amy Casterline, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Republican Party. "We have the biggest effort on the ground in Oregon that we've had for the last decade."

Final numbers from the Oregon secretary of state's office aren't in yet, but early voter registration tabulations suggest that the Democrats are winning the ground war so far.

For example, according to the secretary of state's office about 14,000 people registered as Democrats in Multnomah County between January and August of this year; only about 100 new Republicans registered in the county during the same period.

Ballo and others say they will keep up that same pressure, dispatching 400 to 500 volunteers per day, in 17 of the state's 36 counties; Casterline said a Republican point person has been assigned at every crucial voting precinct in the state.

And not all of the efforts will be traditional door-to-door visits. The Young Voter Project, which has been signing notoriously elusive 18-to-24-year-old voters on college campuses in Portland, Eugene, Corvallis and Ashland, plans to hound people via text messaging and cell phone calls, said spokesman Adam Ebbin.

And when people say they have voted, volunteers will follow up by calling county elections office, to make certain that the ballots were indeed received, Ebbin said.

Republicans, meanwhile, say they plan to rely on the party faithful to volunteer. But the Republican slate will likely also get help from traditional allies like the Christian Coalition of Oregon, which plans to distribute hundreds of thousands of its voter's guide in churches across the state.

"Indirectly, we are campaigning for the pro-life candidate," said Christian Coalition Chairman Lou Beres. "People know who that is."

Additionally, Beres said his group will be sending out about 40 to 50 volunteers per weekend, to troll for votes in the voter-rich Portland metro area of Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties.

Some groups, like America Coming Together, may even go door-to-door to collect ballots, and then turn them over to the counties. Ballo said voters who are given this option will be offered a receipt, with the name and telephone number of the canvasser, so that they can track the progress of their ballot.