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BATON ROUGE - Louisiana is poised to make history today, either electing its first woman chief executive or its first non-white and the nation's first Indian-American governor.

Polls showed the race narrowing in the final hours as is usual in Louisiana's colorful political history, with the outcome perhaps dependent on who energizes their supporters to turn out while precincts are open from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m.

Democrat Kathleen Blanco of Lafayette and Republican Bobby Jindal of Baton Rouge, the survivors of the Oct. 4 primary, spent Friday flying around the state holding rallies with supporters as they organized their so-called GOTV, for Get Out The Vote, efforts.

Gov. Mike Foster, whose grandfather was the last governor of the 19th century, is the last governor of the 20th century, unable to run for re-election because the 73-year-old is limited by the Louisiana Constitution from serving a third term.

A record 100,000 people voted absentee, in part, because both LSU and Southern had out-of-state games or because it's the opening of hunting state.

Despite the high absentee voting, Secretary of State Fox McKeithen is holding to his prediction of a 45 percent turnout of Louisiana's 2.8 million voters.

The historic choice of Louisiana's first governor in the 21st century was set in motion in the Oct. 4 primary, when Jindal, 32 and backed by Foster, ran high with 33 percent and Blanco, 60, ran second with 18 percent.

While 35 percent of voters went for Republican candidates, 65 percent chose Democrats.

In the runoff, Jindal, who would become the nation's youngest sitting governor, and Republicans never quit the all-important television advertising and had the airwaves to themselves for three weeks. At one point, he built an 11-point lead. But it tied, then surged back to him, then began shifting again this week as Democrats stepped up their efforts.

Both candidates spent a lot of time the past week in the New Orleans and Baton Rouge areas, reflecting the fact that half the state's voters live east of the Mississippi River. But Friday, they spent time sweeping across the state, mainly to encourage their volunteers and friends and to gain free media attention as they continued massive television camp