The race for the White House moved into the streets on the final weekend before presidential elections. Tens of thousands of volunteers were knocking on doors or making phone calls to encourage people to vote Tuesday for their candidate.
In states like Ohio, it's an arduous task.
One and a half hours. That's how long Maureen Miczak has gone from door to door in this small suburban community outside Cleveland before anyone finally opens a door.
A young woman peers at her sleepily, it seems too early on a Saturday morning to absorb Miczak's message.
"We count on you to vote on Tuesday," Miczak says cheerfully.
"I will," comes a quick retort.
"On Election Day? When exactly?" Miczak asks.
"Around noon."
The exchange is over. Miczak nods her head in satisfaction, gives the young voter a flyer about US President Barack Obama. Afterwards, she finds the woman's name on her list, makes two checks after her name for "ED" for Election Day and "NO" for Noon.
On Tuesday around noon, someone on the Democratic get-out-the-vote team will call the woman and ask her whether she has already voted.
Miczak turns around and moves along the street with team-mate Patricia Zawadzki. They've been working together this Saturday morning to cover Berea, one of the older Cleveland suburbs.
According to census data, every sixth person in Cuyahoga County lives below the poverty level - but that situation is getting better, Zawadzki believes, due to Obama's bailout of the car industry.
"It is so important to support that," she says.
"I do phone-banking six hours a day during the week and door-to-door on Saturday and Sunday, two shifts with two hours each," the retired teacher says.
"I'm crazy about politics," she says with a laugh.
The two women are hardly alone on this weekend. Tens of thousands of such pairs are fanning out through the country's neighbourhoods to get out the vote, especially in the swing states where Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney are so evenly matched that the outcome could decide the election.
Obama has a slight advantage in the battleground states, but not strong enough to assure victory. The president is not chosen by the national popular vote, but rather by a system of electoral votes assigned to each state based on their representation in Congress.
Ohio is the most important of the states, because of its size and history. Other key states are Colorado, Florida, Iowa, New Hampshire, Virginia and Wisconsin, but Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Nevada could also be in play.
The AFL-CIO national trade union federation is backing Obama and is one of the groups outside the two major political campaigns seeking to influence voters. Both of the women canvassing in Berea are connected to the AFL-CIO, which sends busloads of volunteers into Ohio from out of state.
At this point in the campaign, it's no longer a question of convincing voters already committed to one candidate to change their mind.
"We are now only trying to motivate our people to vote," says a group leader briefing volunteers Saturday morning before they set out. "On your lists it's only people identified who are going to be voting for the president."
His comment reveals the incomprehensible mountains of data collected inside the campaign organisations.
"I believe they even know which sort of milk you drink," Miczak says later, as she moves through the broad suburban streets.
"Many people are scared of that," she says, but she believes the end in this case justifies the means.
Not everyone agrees. People like Cindy Wonders are fed up with the non-stop election campaign happening on her doorstep.
"I have five or six mailings a day, plus, when I get home from work at least four calls on the answering machine," says the manager of an Aldi store outside of Cleveland.
In addition, whenever she turns on the television she sees laughing or scolding images of Romney and Obama, and the radio is running almost exclusively political ads these days.
"I already voted. It cost me 1.75 dollars that I was close to not sending it," Wonders says.
But everything will be over on Tuesday?
"Yeah, thank God!" Wonders says.
People like her are often on the other side of the door on which Maureen Miczak knocks. Although there is no scientific proof that the get-out-the-vote campaigns are effective, experts on Obama's team believe that a strong grassroots efforts pays off on election day.
It must be this kind of hope that motivates Miczak and Zawadzki as they move from door to door, because they have little visible evidence of success.
At the end of their two-hour shift, they have only been able to speak directly with seven of the 100 people on their list.