But as constituency after constituency reported, with their quaint ceremony of having all candidates stand together on a cheap stage to hear the vote totals read aloud, the numbers told the same story.
As recent polling by Lord Ashcroft, a Tory peer, shows, Labour's ground war is better: more voters in the key marginal constituencies report have had contact from Mr Miliband's party than from Mr Cameron's.
With 209 of 210 constituencies reporting, Kenya's Electoral Commission said the new president, Mwai Kibaki, had received 62.28 percent of votes cast, to 31.23 percent for his main rival, Uhuru Kenyatta.
Some constituencies do complain that none of the young members have turned up yet for meetings or turned up only once, but others say young members are already actively engaged, with some constituencies reporting potential rifts between long-term members used to rule-bound discussions and the younger ones seeking more zest and passion in their politics.
About 12% of voters have already cast their ballots in the first two hours of polling in 62 of Assam's 126 assembly constituencies, reports say.
The so-called 'ground-war' was dominated by Labour, and voters in marginal constituencies reported much more contact with Labour activists than with Conservative counterparts.
Using demographics collected by Google, the Conservatives are using YouTube to show certain adverts to specific viewers in different constituencies, reported Buzzfeed in February, as well as spending 100,000 a month just on Facebook adverts.
About a year ago, before I had my current post, perhaps about the time when the case mentioned in today's Guardian took place, I personally encouraged a young person in my constituency to report historic sex abuse.
But before the reimbursement, private detectives posing as reporters interviewed prominent Conservatives in his Huntingdon parliamentary constituency and reported their findings to Mr. Djanogly.
Garry Parvin, High Peak constituency secretary, reported an increase in membership from 100 to 463 – with 259 joining after the May election before and 30 September.
