Women register to vote in higher numbers than men, and more of them show up at the polls on Election Day.

If the national percentages from the Census Bureau hold true in Missouri, at least 127,000 more females than males will vote in the state this November.

Is it any wonder the presidential candidates have commenced a full-fledged courtship of women voters in Missouri?

A St. Joseph woman, state Auditor Susan Montee, chairs Missouri Women for Obama, an organization that for the last year has backed the candidacy of the Illinois senator and now presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

A similar Missouri coalition is taking shape for the Republican Party choice, John McCain. Its organizational structure and leadership will roll out in a couple of weeks, said Wendy Riemann, a regional spokeswoman for the McCain campaign, and it will include members from Northwest Missouri.

National surveys seem to indicate that Mr. McCain has ground to make up on gender. A poll released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center showed Barack Obama holding a 51 to 38 percent edge over his Republican opponent among female voters. That result is almost identical to a poll taken in June.

That’s not to say the Obama campaign can take for granted the vote of women. Intra-party anger, some of it gender-specific, lingers from his primary defeat of Hillary Clinton and threatens to boil over at the Democratic National Convention, which begins Aug. 25.

After a long period of negotiations, Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton announced Thursday an agreement that her name would be placed in nomination at the convention and get a roll-call vote. Whether that will pacify the irked pro-Clinton forces like “Together 4 Us” and “Just Say No Deal” remains to be seen.

Ms. Montee remains confident female voters in Missouri will rally for the Democratic nominee.

“All of us, the Democratic women of Missouri, are going to be united behind Sen. Obama,” she said Wednesday in a conference call with reporters. “We’re going to be specifically targeting women and making sure that women understand how important this election is for them.”

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missourian who will speak in prime time on Monday night at the Democratic Convention, agrees that the Clinton supporters will put disappointments aside in supporting Mr. Obama.

“What’s at stake here is way too important to get distracted by the emotions of that very difficult and long primary,” she said during the conference call.

Ms. McCaskill said the soon-to-be nominee understands better than Mr. McCain the issues that affect women: early childhood education, pay equity, day care costs and health coverage.

Ms. Riemann said the Republican candidate would reach Missouri women through his comprehensive program on energy, his ideas on reforming education and his plan to create a better health system.

Ultimately, she said, gender matters little in consideration of the issues that matter.

“(Voters) all want good things for the future of the state of Missouri, for their children, for their families and for their jobs,” she said.

Ken Newton can be reached at kenn@npgco.com.