"Two or three times a week we will get a phone call," she said with a roll of the eyes. "I also got two ads yesterday out of the mailbox."

Stevens said you can escape it "if you turn off the TV. I see enough of it on the news every night. I just want to be able to sit back and clear my head and read."

By reading, he means news articles and other research he gathers on the candidates.

He may be doing his best to ignore it, but both campaigns are working the state feverishly in the final days -- knowing their get-out-the-vote effort is likely to determine who wins this hotly contested battleground.

Both claim the ground war edge.

The Obama campaign's case:

• More than 60 field offices across Virginia.

• Grass-roots organizing dating back to early 2009.

• A 19% increase in the number of Latinos registered to vote since 2008, and a 7% increase of African-American registration.

• Just shy of 60% of those registering to vote in the last two months are younger than 30.

The GOP's counterargument:

• More than 1 million door knocks.

• 5 million voter contacts.

• Improved absentee and early voting numbers from 2008.

Stevens will cast his ballot the old fashioned way: in person on Election Day.

"It's the economy -- jobs," he said of the overriding issue. "I think the upper-income people should pay a little more. That's where I flip on the Obama side on this thing. By the same token, I see the big picture. I just think we need a change."

If he had to vote today?

"I'm pretty much undecided. It's kind of scary. I thought I would have been there by now. But I will be by Election Day."