By Elise Craig/BERKELEY  Both Shirley Dean and Tom Bates’s mayoral campaigns have spent the last few days putting up lawn signs, only to have many of them stolen or torn apart.

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by Nick Burns/WEST BERKELEY

Local democratic campaign volunteers worked furiously into the night preparing for tomorrow’s historic election. Armed with cell phones, area residents manned tables at Berkeley’s United Democratic Campaign office to encourage voters to cast their ballots. Children of volunteers also participated in phone banking efforts, leaving messages pleading for residents to reelect Mayor Tom Bates and vote against Proposition 8, which seeks to ban gay marriage by amending the state constitution.

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