Is Obama stalking you?

At a wine-tasting-cum-briefing of volunteers at the Democratic Women’s Club headquarters in Washington last month, Obama campaign adviser Mindy Burrell stood up in a flowery dress. ‘Get people to visualise election day,’ she told the women about to knock on doors in the key swing state of Virginia. ‘How will they go and vote? What time will they go — after work? After dropping the kids off at school? What route will they take?’

If people said they planned to vote for President Barack Obama, the women were to ask them to sign a pledge card explaining why, which would be posted back to them just before election day on 6 November.

The volunteers, mostly lawyers or wealthy housewives, looked dubious. But Mindy assured them: ‘It’s all scientifically proven!’

Experiments by behavioural scientists have shown that getting people to visualise their voting day in advance increases turnout by three percentage points (ten if they live alone), while getting reminders can increase turnout by between five and ten per cent.