Trick or Vote bags are lined up and ready to be distributed on Halloween (Photo by Piya Sinha-Roy)

"Trick or Vote" is an organization that delivers door-to-door non-partisan advice on voting in elections. With this year’s midterm elections playing a key role in the nation’s progress and Halloween falling on the weekend prior to the elections, "Trick or Vote" organizer Noah Manger was eager to get as many people canvassing doors in costume.

“What’s the one day of the year that everyone expects a knock on the door? Halloween, of course. And with Halloween falling a few days before the election, it just made sense to build it all together and have some fun and celebrations for democracy,” Manger said.

Political campaigns are embracing social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to interact with their voters, especially the younger generation – Obama’s campaign certainly placed a huge emphasis on reaching voters online.  So why go back to the old-school tactics of door-to-door canvassing?

“We know from study after study that knocking on doors is the single best way of increasing voter participation. It increases voter participation by 7 to 12 percent, which is way more than any other form of voter outreach,” said Manger.

Manger stated that there were more than 90 groups registered with "Trick or Vote" this Halloween, and through canvassing, "Trick or Vote" is expecting to reach 280,000 people face-to-face in states across the country.

There were a few events being held in Los Angeles over Halloween, and I found one listed in Culver City, hosted by Cuentamé, a group dedicated to uniting the Latino voice. Unai Montes-Irueste is one of the organizers, and spoke of how their group was using "Trick or Vote" to encourage the community to vote.

“We are appealing to voters to make sure they vote, and we’re using the aggressive slogan of “Don’t Be a Cabron” to explain to people that their voice needs to be heard,” explained Montes-Irueste. “People are very aware of Latinos being attacked in states like Louisiana, and then when Latinos for Reform encouraged Latinos not to vote, we had to go out there and show people that voting was the way they would be heard.”

I tagged along with "Trick or Vote" member Saurabh Kikani on Halloween Eve. A campaigner on Obama’s 2008 campaign and an advisor on the board of the New Leaders Council, Kikani decided to get involved with "Trick or Vote" a month ago. “Obama’s campaign message was not just supporting a man, but building a movement, and the energy of the campaign carried on even after the elections,” said Kikani.

Kikani opted to cover the UCLA turf although he decided against wearing a Halloween costume, and we arrived to a student-orientated residential area in Westwood.

Kikani went through his list methodically, despite the fact that a lot of registered voter names on his list belonged to students who no longer resided at the addresses they were listed at. The first few addresses led him to fraternity houses where a lot of the students he was looking for had already moved out, but Kikani made the best of the situation and asked the current residents if they were voting on Tuesday.

The response was mixed – some people were quick to close the door while others were willing to listen and accept the Trick or Vote pamphlets. The pamphlet being distributed simply highlighted the main Propositions being voted on (19, 23 and 25), and the candidates for the role of governor and state senator. After almost 2 hours of canvassing on a Sunday evening, Kikani decided to call it a night for that area, recognizing that it was harder to track down the registered voters on his list in a student area.

While some may think Trick or Voters are exploiting the willingness of people to open their doors to trick or treaters on Halloween, it appears as though all the organization aims to do is to reach registered voters and offer them impartial advice on the voting process.

With Election Day hours away and "Trick or Vote" organizers eager to reach as many people, you may just get a knock on the door to encourage you to vote.

To reach Senior Entertainment Editor Piya Sinha-Roy, click here.