With a bundle of rubber-banded Democratic leaflets and brochures in hand, Eric Burton, dressed in blue jeans and a green MSU track T-shirt knocks on East Holden Hall doors as students stream by wearing garb more appropriate for the Halloween night.
"Hi, I'm just dropping off some literature about next week's election," Burton says, who by now has knocked on 10 doors in 25 minutes.
The student at the door responds with a thank you. And then, "Hey, I don't suppose you know when the MSU-Penn State blood drive is, do you?"
Burton laughs and politely responds that he isn't sure.
"I get random, unrelated questions all the time," said the urban and regional planning junior, who began campaigning in August for Michigan Democrats running in the November election. "Sometimes people bring me into their conversations, like if they are arguing or something. I've been shown all kinds of pets, stuffed animals, random things like that."
Burton was one of three MSU College Democrats members who spent Halloween reminding students of Tuesday's election.
The group passed out several pieces of information, including literature for Gov. Jennifer Granholm, U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Proposal 2, Michigan congressional candidate Jim Marcinkowski and attorney general candidate Amos Williams.
MSU students aren't always receptive, Burton said. One time, he was standing in the hallway waiting at a door he had just knocked on when some guys from the floor returned from dinner.
"One of them yelled, 'Hurry up and lock your door! The voter registration guy is coming,' and they all locked their doors," Burton said.
With five days left until Election Day, student groups representing both parties are moving to squeeze every vote out of the district.
With lists and bubble sheets spread out on the white plastic table in front of him, political science sophomore Ben Morlock sat Wednesday afternoon in an office with five other volunteers, dialing numbers in the MSU College Republicans' phone bank. The building displays yard signs of Republican candidates in the windows and holds stacks of pamphlets on the countertops.
"Hello, I'm calling on behalf of Dick DeVos and the Republican team," Morlock said. "This call is to remind you to vote for DeVos, Mike Bouchard and other Republican candidates on Nov. 7."
Morlock hangs up the phone and colors in the "L" on the bubble sheet, indicating he left a message.
But the volunteers don't always just leave messages, MSU College Republicans chairman Jeff Wiggins said.
"One time, I got a lady who said she would rather cut off her arm than vote for a Republican," Wiggins said. "Another time, a guy said, 'I would never vote for the Nazi Party, so what makes you think I would vote for a Republican?'"
Wiggins worries responses such as this turn people off to volunteering. But responses like those help the volunteer staff bond together, he said.
"As soon as we get someone like that, we get off the phone and tell everyone else in the room, and everyone is laughing about it," Wiggins said.
"It's great when someone says, 'Oh, I'm so glad you called. I saw the other day that Granholm did this or that,'" Wiggins said. "That's the best part."
Morlock agreed with Wiggins. It's always nice when people want to talk about the issues, said Morlock, who makes 30-40 calls in an hour.
"Right now, we are only calling a list of Republicans, so most people are pretty friendly," Morlock said. "Sometimes people just want to get off the phone pretty quickly, but it's always nice to hear about what people throughout the state think."
Morlock said he volunteers because he wants to make a difference, and getting people out to vote is an important part of that.
"I tell students, 'If you want to see a change in our economy, you have to get involved," Morlock said.
"I'm a sophomore right now, and I want to stay in Michigan after I graduate. Right now, everyone I know who's graduated are looking for jobs in other states. I don't want to do that."
