Chicago - Strangers chat about politics on the train and buttons peer out from coats with the smiling face of Chicago's favourite son, Barack Obama, as the city is gripped with excitement about the looming election.
But Chicago, population 2.7 million, is not just waiting for Tuesday night to learn whether the US senator from Illinois, who got his political start on the city's South Side, will become the first African-American president.
Not relying on polls that show Obama ahead of Republican opponent John McCain, Chicagoans instead gathered by the thousands at phone banks across the city, where they hoped to get out the vote in key swing states that will likely decide the next president.