In New Hampshire on Monday, New England’s most closely contested governor’s race brought out a familiar surrogate in the election’s final hours

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey was in Manchester making the case for Joyce Craig as her counterpart in New Hampshire, painting her opponent, Kelly Ayotte, as a Trump Republican against abortion.

Healey also emphasized that the Harris-Walz campaign will protect reproductive rights.

“Kelly Ayotte — just like Donald Trump — they’re not about freedom. It’s not freedom when you want to deny a woman’s right to health care,” Healey said. “If they’re going to come after the freedom of our own body, there’s not freedom that they’re not going to come after.”

The presidential race is tight in the Granite State. A recent UNH poll found New Hampshire voters favoring Harris by five percentage points but split over which candidate they think is most likely to win the entire election — 42% think it will be Harris while another 42% think it will be Trump; 15% were not sure.

“There’s a lot of people around the country right now — they’re not feeling it. They’re pissed off at politics. They’re pissed off at politicians. They don’t think that anyone’s there for them,” Healey said. “I get that. And you know who else gets that? Kamala Harris and Tim Walz get that.”

While Ayotte was just ahead of Craig in the most recent UNH poll, Republicans said they were confident many of their nominees for Congress, who have been trailing in polls, will come through and even pull some upsets.

“I think it’ll be a landslide victory,” said Republican Richard Griffith, who has draped his pickup truck in all kinds of political flags.

The 73-year-old believes he speaks for a silent majority in New Hampshire looking to upset the establishment and bring a more conservative government led by Trump.

New Hampshire Republican State Committee Chair Chris Ager was trying to court undecided voters on the last day before the election by reminding them of what he calls “kitchen table” issues like the price of gas, education and transportation, which he links directly to the Biden-Harris administration.

“You could see a surprise on Election Day because the polls may say one thing but we may be able to achieve something better,” Ager said.

GOP candidate Russell Prescott is hearing a similar message from voters in Congressional District 1 – a seat currently held by Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas.

“We’re going to have a lot of people coming out that have never voted before. We’re going to have the largest turnout here in New Hampshire and we really are going to make a change,” Prescott said.

Lily Tang-Williams, who immigrated from China at age 27, is also hoping for an upset in her race, District 2, where polls show Maggie Goodlander ahead, by connecting with an electorate that, like her, feels disenfranchised.

“If people want to have a safe quality of life, live the American Dream and have peace and free speech, they should vote up and down Republican,” she said.

New Hampshire is a same-day registration state, so anyone who’s not registered can show up at the polls on Election Day with their ID and register to vote.

Elected officials urged everyone to get to the ballot box Tuesday because they said this is the most important election of our lifetime.

“Democracy is the exception in the history of the world, not the rule,” said New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan, who is not up for reelection this year. “Keep knocking, keep talking, this is our democracy. Americans believe in each other in freedom. We’re gonna move forward. Go get ’em everybody!”

This is NHPR’s The Big Question. We ask you a question about life in New Hampshire, you submit an answer, and your voice may be featured on air or online.

Granite Staters are heading to the polls to cast their votes in local and national elections. Voting is one important way to be civically engaged, but it’s not the only way.

For October’s Big Question, we asked you: How do you stay civically engaged in New Hampshire? 

Here’s what some of you said.

Peter – Greenland, NH: I’m a board member of the Japan American Society of New Hampshire, which seeks to keep the Treaty of Portsmouth alive, which was signed in 1905. I’m also a board member of the World Affairs Council of New Hampshire, whose motto is ‘We bring the world to New Hampshire and New Hampshire to the world.’ I work with some of my fellow citizens on two Greenland committees, and I get a lot of satisfaction from that one, that I’m making a difference and not just sitting and complaining about things and the people who are similarly motivated as I am are really interesting people that I am glad to include in my circle of friends.

John – Londonderry, NH: I’ve done a number of other things. I will be a poll watcher on Tuesday. I have written letters to the editor a few times. When we moved to Londonderry, I attended the deliberative sessions just to see what the town issues were like. I guess I just find the time because it’s important… I feel it’s important for the community. I try to listen more than talk. I think I try not to get into heated discussions with anybody about politics, and I just try to do little things that I can. You don’t have to spend a lot of time writing a letter to the editor. [It] takes a little time or a little thought, and often it’s not just sitting down, but while I’m out walking or something, thinking about it so it doesn’t have to take a lot of time. It just takes some thought and willingness to do it.

Katie – Durham, NH: I started volunteering at the polls a few years ago and found that that was just a fun way to see all the people in town that you only see once every four years. But I volunteer at the polls and most of all, what I’ve really started doing lately is canvassing, because it’s one of the most effective things you can do for your candidates. Everybody thinks it’s a terrible thing to do to go up and knock on strangers’ doors, but it’s actually really fun to get to talk to people and hopefully make a difference in who you’re trying to get elected. What’s amazing to me is people actually recognize me or recognize at least my name from the town council. And some people will talk to you for 20 minutes and some people will talk to you for a minute and a half. But it’s a connection of some sort, because we’re either talking about their Halloween decorations or their dogs and then politics, too. But it is building connections in the community.

Eric Baxter – Manchester, NH: I created a small little free art gallery and it had some surprising dividends. I opened it up because I thought it was interesting and I thought people would appreciate art, but since then it’s become sort of a community fixture, and I think it’s helped build the character of the neighborhood and the fabric of the neighborhood. So it’s nothing that would be, I guess, could be characterized as like strict civic engagement where you’re going out and getting people to vote. Or at least that’s what I would think. But it is getting people to take an active interest in where they live, and improving the streets and making it seem less just like a place to exist in, more like a place to call home.