“We’re trying to show Ken Reeves stands alone in Cambridge politics,” says Patrick Cochran, one of the carpenters. “He’s an excellent guy. He really supports the community.”

Traffic is slow for the Reeves duo but it’s not bustling for the CCA candidates either. After a while, Pitkin moves over to the nearby Peabody School, where he stays until almost noon. Then he goes to the Longfellow House precinct on Brattle Street, where a warden shoos him out of the precinct as he tries to check the vote.

After returning to 57 Inman to cast his ballot and then going home for a bite to eat, Pitkin hits the streets again. First he heads to the Fitzgerald School in North Cambridge to encourage his supporters.

Then it’s back to the Agassiz and the Peabody, where State Rep. Alice K. Wolf (D-Cambridge) stops by and is taken aback by some of the campaign strategy. A pair of supporters holding the same candidate’s sign are standing together, even though there are two entrances to the polling place.

“You two, what’s the matter with you?” she says in mock disbelief.

“You’re not the boss,” one replies in jest. “This is more social than anything.”

“I’m not the boss,” Wolf says. “I’m just sharing my political wisdom.”

Wolf directs them to split up, one covering the front sidewalk and one covering the back pathway.

As for his own political wisdom, Pitkin actually meets face-to-face for the first time during the day with his campaign manager, Cecily McMillan ’79, who has worked full-time the last 10 weeks to pull off an effort that got off to a late start in July.

She pulls a cell phone out of her pocket. McMillan has never used a cell phone until today and she’s been wrestling with it, redialing numbers when she means to turn off the phone.

By 4:15 p.m., after a day of driving around, McMillan is tired. As she drives back to Harvard Square to cast her vote at Gund Hall, she listens to the soothing jazz sounds of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.

But the candidate’s not done—he still has to visit precincts and rally his supporters’ spirits. At 8:15 p.m., nearly 13 hours after he arrived at 57 Inman Street this morning, Pitkin is ready to call it a day. He’s at home getting ready for his party and for the time being he’s inclined to watch the vote count on television.

“I was optimistic but not confident this morning, and now I feel a little more optimistic,” he says. “I feel a little relieved and I’m glad to sit down and not have to think about what to do the next minute.”

The candidate’s biggest frustration at the moment: not getting through to his e-mail account so he can catch up on the messages that accumulated during his last, long day on the campaign trail.

—Staff writer Andrew S. Holbrook can be reached at holbr@fas.harvard.edu.