Simply put, it's a big step from "liking" a Facebook page to joining a get-out-the-vote operation or distributing campaign literature in your neighborhood.

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On just about every cold sidewalk in New Hampshire is someone with a clipboard, carrying campaign literature and peering up at house numbers.

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But the Conservatives' Claire Perry, appearing on the same programme, was worried that politicians visiting the seat had "overwhelmed the electorate" with campaign literature.

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They are producing campaign literature in Spanish as well as English.

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Campaign literature for Mr Stevens, a former Tory MEP who says he was encouraged to stand by George Walden, Mr Bercow's predecessor in the seat, makes much of the speaker's complicated expenses.

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When asked by Newsnight for an explanation of the list, Republican spokespersons claim the list merely records returned mail from either fundraising solicitations or returned letters sent to newly registered voters to verify their addresses for purposes of mailing campaign literature.

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The passage was originally written by the author, who penned the No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, as part of a campaign to promote the capital, the world's first Unesco City of Literature.

BBC: Author Alexander McCall Smith's words set in stone