Election Day is finally here. After months of television ads, traveling the state, fundraisers and contacting voters, we will see the results of all of the hard work put into these campaigns.

Most Democrats have to be giddy at the fact that virtually every poll has shown Steve Beshear with a lead. However, as Sen. Mitch McConnell reminded us at a breakfast this past weekend, the Lexington Herald-Leader published a poll 10 days before the election showing him down by 15 points when he ran for U.S. Senate in 1984. The poll was wrong then, and I believe it is wrong now.

I have traveled from Pikeville to Paducah and from Florence to London over the course of this election season. Everywhere I have been there have been large crowds, many times made of several hundred people, supporting our Republican candidates. If Gov. Ernie Fletcher is down by 15 points, how can he keep commanding such large crowds?

Moreover, Fletcher’s aggressive bus tour — he visited 62 counties in less than two weeks — has seen similar success. I will give one concrete example from the bus tour. Take Letcher County in southeastern Kentucky where there are 12,778 registered Democrats and 3,451 registered Republicans, according to numbers on the secretary of state’s Web site. According to kypolitics.org, when Fletcher held a prayer breakfast on Oct. 23, roughly 135 people, including the Democrat Judge-Executive, attended. Democratic candidate Steve Beshear decided to have a breakfast in Letcher County the same day, even though he was scheduled to be in Western Kentucky. Only 38 people showed up to Beshear’s event.

I think this example shows a flaw in the Beshear-Mongiardo strategy. They have focused too much on the large urban areas, especially Louisville. The UK College Democrats focused exclusively on Louisville over the past weekend. And according to Pol Watchers, a political blog run by the Lexington Herald-Leader, Beshear’s campaign paid $95,000 to an organization from Philadelphia — so much for his Kentucky first rhetoric — that has a record of voter fraud. Maybe the Louisville focus will pay off. In any case, I know the support for Gov. Fletcher exists all over the state and not just in Louisville.

Recently, there was another poll taken, sponsored by Secretary of State Trey Grayson’s office. Nearly 10,000 students in 85 schools voted in a mock election. Interestingly enough, every Republican candidate won the match-up. In fact, the closest race was for Treasurer, in which Melinda Wheeler beat Todd Hollenbach by over 7 points.

While most of these students cannot vote in the actual election, they have to be learning whom to support from somewhere. My guess is their voting-age parents. As Fletcher said in reference to these results at a rally on Saturday evening, “I have more faith in our children than I do in the Herald-Leader.”

I have no idea what the results tonight will be; however, I fail to see how the 15- or 20-point blowout that the liberal media is projecting could become a reality. During these final two weeks, our candidates have been working tirelessly at grassroots campaigning all over the state. The response has been tremendous and will hopefully translate into victories tonight.

I hope you get out and vote Fletcher for governor, Grayson for secretary of state, Stan Lee for attorney general, Wheeler for treasurer, Linda Greenwell for auditor and Richie Farmer for commissioner of agriculture.

If you decide not to vote for them, you should at least vote. After all, having all of the voices of our state heard is what the election should be about.

Thomas Roberts is the president of UK College Republicans. E-mail [email protected].