It is usually just a week, but sometimes longer. The hours are long, the socialising limited, and there is no reward beyond free accommodation in a shared house, recalls one Labour staffer who spent three weeks knocking on doors and ferrying leaflets for the 2008 campaign to put Barack Obama, then a junior senator from Illinois, in the White House.
What volunteering in a US election does offer is a walk-on part in a moment in history.
