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The candidates repeat the same message. Barack Obama has his speech off pat; John McCain tends to sound less fluent, and perhaps that makes his stump speech seem a little fresher.

Both men are also nostalgic. I've just heard Obama talking - again - about the cold day eighteen months ago when he launched his campaign in Illinois' former capital, Springfield.

As for McCain he's off down memory lane, too; in New Hampshire where he beat George Bush in the primary contest in 2000. He's also holding one of his fabled town hall meetings there, an occasion where he takes questions from whoever turns up.

It's the kind of thing which drives campaign strategists nuts, because there's a risk of the candidate going off script. But risk is what he needs to take right now. He's behind in all the polls, and having seen him at such an event in New Hampshire at the beginning of January, I know how effective he can be.

For those who think it's all over, some cautionary stories are to be found in a leaflet being handed out in branchs of Starbucks. In the presidential election eight years ago, George Bush was ahead of Al Gore by just 537 votes in Florida, but that gave him the state's 25 votes in the Electoral College, pushing him past the winning post of 270 Electoral College votes.

In 2006, Joe Courtney became a Congressman after winning his district in Conneticut by only 83 votes. Maybe he would have got a few more had he not stopped campaigning for half an hour to talk to me and the team from The World This Weekend !

But we can't be blamed for the result in Ann Arbor in Michigan in 1977. Mayor Albert Wheeler won there by a single vote.

Thanks to all the early voting, turnout shouldn't be a problem in this election. In Colorado, 46 pee cent of registered voters have already cast their ballots; and in Oregon every vote that's going to cast probably already has been. In the Beaver State, you're only able to vote by post.

It's safe to predict the turnout will be high on Tuesday, but it would be foolish to predict anything else.

You can hear more from the campaign trail from Martha Kearney on Monday's edition of The World At One, and on Tuesday join James Naughtie and me for an election night special as the results come in. We'll be on air from midnight, which is 7pm in Washington, the time when the first polling stations will close."