By 8:30 a.m., the Harvard volunteers on the Dean staff were dispersed throughout the downtown area here, wielding campaign signs and stickers to promote “poll visibility”—which required standing outside voting places and hawking candidates to Charlestonians on the way to cast their ballots.

Marshall, who was assigned to the College of Charleston voting place, was “expecting some high-tech voter thing,” but was surprised to find a relatively simple operation. This veteran Deaniac—who worked briefly for the campaign in New Hampshire— had been instructed to report a vote tally from the polling place every two hours.

Around 7:30 a.m., Kerry’s Harvard volunteers arrived at their offices, located two floors below the Dean headquarters.

Workers were immediately sent out on “lit-drops” around the city, leaving flyers and candidate information on parked cars and in stores and restaurants. Visibility was a high priority as campaigners hoped to capture the ballots of still-undecided voters.

Jonathan D. Einkauf ’06, who is working for the Kerry campaign here, demonstrated some of the more irreverent tactics the Harvard contingent brought to the South Carolina.

After taping a large Kerry poster onto a wall outside of a Food Lion grocery store, Einkauf was confronted by an employee.

“That’s gotta go,” the man said solemnly.

After attempting to negotiate for a moment, Einkauf relented and took the sign down. The employee thanked him and turned away, but Einkauf immediately posted the sign right back up, this time on a wall facing away from the store.

Giggling, he walked back toward the rest of the Kerry workers.

“He’ll notice it when he’s going home for the day,” Einkauf said.

The Edwards camp, which started the day at 7 a.m., was divided into small groups and dropped off at intersections to campaign during morning rush hour. At 9 a.m., the workers planned to return to Edwards-friendly neighborhoods and ensure that “all the Edwards voters we know of are going to vote,” said Paul C. Davis ’07.

Frank said the Dems chose to campaign in Charleseton because of a combination of political and aesthetic reasons.

“We wanted to be in a place where we could have a big impact,” Frank said. “Columbia is very cluttered, and we wanted to be in a nice location.”

—Staff writer Michael M. Grynbaum can be reached at grynbaum@fas.harvard.edu.