GOTOV

A group of local youngsters walked to Get Out The Older Vote this weekend in several Sacramento neighborhoods this weekend, trying to get registered voters who skipped the last election to get out on February 5. Researchers are going to see if the direct contact gets these people out - they want to determine what is the most effective way to reach voters.

All my training and experience says direct contact is the most effective method, with direct mail coming in second. Right? Have I been out of the game too long?

Donald Green, a political science professor at Yale, says more human contact generally yields better results. Personal phone calls trump messages left by a machine, he said. And face-to-face interaction may be best of all.

Around 9 a.m. Saturday, about 35 students wearing brown "Sac Votes" T-shirts crowded into a Luther Burbank High classroom to practice greeting prospective voters.

"Don't knock on the door like you're bothering them," suggested Cedric Sydnor, Burbank's junior varsity girls' basketball coach. "Knock on the door like, 'I have something to give you.' "

That almost sounds ominous.