(NewsNation) — Yellow and orange leaves line the yards of many Midwestern homes, as residents await the belated annual snowfall. Some blue and red signs peek out of the colorful foliage, as the same folks eagerly await to know who the next U.S. president will be.
One Milwaukee woman, raking her leaf-filled lawn over the weekend, interrupted a group of out-of-state canvassers before they could finish asking their question: “I’m voting, and I’m voting Harris,” she said from a distance. “Fingers crossed and toes and everything else.”
More than 1,000 canvassers from Illinois arrived in Wisconsin over the weekend and on Monday, and many more trickled in on Tuesday hours before polls closed.
With political literature in hand, Illinois Democrats greeted Milwaukee voters at their doors as part of an interstate Get Out the Vote effort called “Carpools for Kamala” organized by the group Operation Swing State.
Two of the seven swing states this election are in the Midwest: Michigan and Wisconsin.
The Democratic Party of Evanston, Illinois, located near Chicago, has mobilized hundreds of volunteers to those two states every Saturday since late August and every day in the week leading up to the election.
“Right up to the wire,” said Lois Farley Shuford, one of the volunteers. On Tuesday, “It’ll just be chasing votes.”
Illinois, largely driven by the number of Chicago voters, has trended blue in most presidential elections.
“Illinois is a typical blue state,” Farley Shuford said.” The swing states, which can go either way, become very critical, so because we can count on Illinois being blue, we try to reach out as much as we can to other states near us.”
Four of the past six presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by fewer than 23,000 votes, according to the Associated Press.
Across state lines
Nestled next to a vintage thrift store and across the street from mom-and-pop restaurants is one of the Wisconsin Democrats’ offices. The organization ran out of neighborhoods to assign to out-of-state canvassers during one of its recent events.
Illinoisans filled the office before embarking on hours-long door-knocking efforts, many wearing baseball caps with the symbol for a comma followed by “la” and others donning pink buttons that read “Kamala.”
Helen Oloroso of Chicago canvassed in Wisconsin for the first time this election Saturday.
“If I didn’t do this, I’d never forgive myself if Trump won,” said Oloroso, who drove 80 miles north with multiple canvassers in her SUV to support the Harris-Walz ticket.
Oloroso said she got involved in politics during the Vietnam War, primarily canvassing in local Chicago elections and Iowa for previous presidential elections. Times were different then: Door knockers carried pen and paper in hand, writing down responses and hand tabulating results.
“We went out with clipboards,” Oloroso said.
Now, canvassers use an app that shows an interactive map of the voters’ homes they’re targeting, and they type the results of whether the person answered, who they’re voting for and if they’ve voted already.
Oloroso laughed when asked why she canvassed so close to Election Day.
“For reasons I don’t fully understand there are many voters who aren’t beginning to think about this until (now),” she said.
At the same time, many voters cast their ballots early: 1.5 million people in Wisconsin, 1.2 million in Michigan and 2.2 million in Illinois.
Politicians across state lines
Illinois politicians have gone door-knocking across state lines, too. Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson arrived at the Wisconsin Democrats office Saturday, three days before the election. He previously campaigned for Harris at rallies in Las Vegas, Detroit, Pittsburgh and most recently, Durham, North Carolina.
“Chicagoans, Illinoisians, we know how important this election is. We’re going to deliver Illinois for Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz, but we know that we’re going to need these battleground states,” Johnson said. “Wisconsin is key for Democrats.”
When asked if he would consider a position with the Harris administration, Johnson said he loves being in Chicago.
“It’s the joy of my life,” Johnson said. “My position as mayor is to ensure that we have leadership at the federal level that reflects the values of cities like Chicago and Milwaukee and Detroit, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and Las Vegas and Durham.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss and Cook County Board Commissioner Josina Morita each gathered at the Democratic Party of Evanston’s office to send off canvassers.
“(Harris) is teaching us a master class in campaigning,” Oloroso said. “Her ground game is unbelievable.”
Republican efforts out of state
The Trump campaign has been just as fervent in hosting campaign rallies and events in the battleground states.
Trump was in Milwaukee Friday, just seven miles from Harris’ own rally the same day.
The Republican Party of Illinois said it has been focusing on a nationally coordinated push for early voting through digital mailing and texting. While some have gone to Wisconsin, the group’s focus has been on local elections in Illinois.
Their twofold approach was “get out the vote” and “protect the vote.”
NewsNation spoke to farmers in Illinois last month who said they often feel forgotten in elections. One family said they feel like their Republican vote in Illinois doesn’t matter.
Another Republican-voting family in Milwaukee said they feel similarly.
“The problem with our vote in Milwaukee, it doesn’t (matter),” said Michael Gierach, echoed by his wife, Tracy Gierach.
The two voted Democrat in multiple elections but voted for Trump in 2016. They said they’re casting their vote for Trump again on Election Day.
“The Democrat way is not necessarily the beneficial way for middle-class families,” Tracy Gierach said. “I’m not voting for the person; I’m voting for the policies and everyone around him.”
Across international lines
A group of people from Canada crossed the border to campaign for Harris.
Victoria Jung and four others canvassed in Wisconsin in the days leading up to Election Day – in an election they can’t vote in.
“I’m scared to see what’s going to happen and we (Canada) also have a federal election coming up and we’ve seen a lot of similarities in the way that Trump has been, I guess, campaigning similar to what’s happening in Canada,” Jung said. “I think that’s really scary. I think it’s undemocratic.”
Does political canvassing work?
The use of volunteers in political campaigns has become a “get out the vote operation,” according to Marc Farinella, a senior adviser at the University of Chicago’s Howard School of Public Policy and the executive director of the Center on Survey Methodology.
This “GOTV” method involves targeting people who have a history of voting for candidates of the same party and urging them to vote.
“The use of out-of-state volunteers for Get Out the Vote can be very effective,” Farinella said. “A lot depends on how well organized the campaign is, what kind of technology they’re using, how good their information is on each voter.”
The tactic became common in the 1970s, said Farinella, who led a group of about 30 students from Illinois to Wisconsin in 1976 as a high school student.
He’s noticed two differences in political canvassing this election cycle: the advancement of canvassing technology and the increase in excitement behind a candidate.
“Harris has generated a great deal of enthusiasm,” Farinella said. “On the Democratic side, the level of enthusiasm has not been this high I think in quite some time, perhaps since Obama in 2008.”
