By Leslie Wayne

Read the original article at The New York Times.

In Ohio, the target is single women voters over the age of 50. For Wisconsin, it is rural conservative voters concerned about hunting and fishing, while in Pennsylvania, more than a half-million “union friendly” households are the desired demographic.

As independent groups gear up in the closing weeks of the presidential campaign, the ground wars have begun. Advocacy groups supporting the Democratic ticket have started a robust grass-roots effort to confront what many acknowledge has been a more sophisticated Republican ground effort.

Democratic candidates, for years, have relied on the foot soldiers fielded by unions on Election Day. But this year, union and other advocacy groups are pouring even more money into their ground games and adopting sophisticated new tactics that allow them to better coordinate their efforts. These groups are determined to overcome the longstanding advantage of the Republican National Committee, which has relied on its deep pockets and on sophisticated “microtargeting” from demographic data banks to locate sympathetic voters and get them to the polls.

To counter that, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. has set aside $53 million of the $200 million it has budgeted for this election for a grass-roots campaign to reach more than 13 million voters in 24 priority states. The Service Employees International Union has added $20 million to its budget since 2004 and plans to spend a total of $85 million by Election Day. And MoveOn.org will be spending $38 million to get 500,000 young people to the polls in swing states.

To coordinate some of the efforts, a relatively new entity, America Votes, a 527 group with a budget of $25 million, is acting as an oversight committee for nearly 50 unions and liberal groups, including Emily’s List, the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood and the N.A.A.C.P. Voters Fund. The group acts as a traffic cop in 14 crucial states for its members.

“This is the biggest effort we have ever conducted,” said Karen Ackerman, political director of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. “What we are seeing is the greatest synergy of grass-roots energy and sophisticated voter targeting that we have ever done.”

For years, one secret to the success of the Republican Party has been its ability to locate people through its celebrated “voter vault” of personal data. This year, Democrats, including the Obama campaign, are relying on similar information provided by Catalist, a company founded by the Democratic operative Harold M. Ickes that has information on 230 million Americans. Change to Win, which represents seven unions including the Teamsters and the service employees’ union, will draw on Catalist data for a $65 million campaign that will send out 14 million pieces of mail and make 10 million phone calls.

“We’re coordinating to maximize impact,” said Jeffrey Lerner, national political director for Change to Win. “The unions are working together to build a larger program.”

In Colorado, Planned Parenthood is focusing on 69,178 voters who back abortion rights, identified by America Votes. The League of Conservation Voters is pursuing 75,000 “persuadable” voters with an environmental pitch.

“We are the central data and targeting entity,” said Greg Speed, executive director at America Votes. “We help coordinate what these groups are doing, so that they don’t walk on top of each other.”

As the presidential campaign began, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois spoke out against such outside efforts, since their political activities are loosely regulated. But, in the final weeks of the campaign, and as conservative independent groups have begun to attack him, the Obama campaign has appeared to drop this opposition. That has led to an increase in donations to America Votes and its member groups.

The A.F.L.-C.I.O. has set up a new entity called Working America to approach blue-collar nonunion households in swing states. Steve Smith, a spokesman for the union, credits the effort with keeping many socially conservative union and union-friendly voters in the Democratic column.

Mr. Smith said the union’s goal was to make 70 million phone calls and to distribute 20 million leaflets at job sites.

At the service workers’ union, 1,400 members have taken job leaves to work full-time for Democratic candidates in 12 states. So far, they have knocked on more than 340,000 doors, made 65,000 phone calls and registered 45,000 voters. Alex Conant, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said his party was not concerned by the Democrats’ efforts. He said the R.N.C. would be heading a huge get-out-the-vote effort in the 72 hours preceding Election Day.

“We don’t look at quantity, but quality,” Mr. Conant said. “Their volunteers are just knocking on doors. We use ours more efficiently, and we know what doors and houses to call. Outside groups supporting Obama like to brag about big numbers of phone calls. We’re going to be successful again, and we don’t depend on outside groups to turn out our voters.”