Canvassers Are at the Door Until the Polls Close Tomorrow. Dog-Bite Liability Claims Hit 28,450 Last Year, at an Average of $65,450 Each.

Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, and get-out-the-vote operations are in their final 48 hours — which, in practice, means a lot of unfamiliar people walking up a lot of front paths between now and tomorrow evening. [1]

For most dogs that's just a busy day of announcements. For a few thousand households a year, the person standing at the threshold is where things go sideways.

What the numbers look like

The U.S. Postal Service counted more than 5,200 dog attacks on its employees in 2025 — a figure it publishes precisely because the front door is where its workforce spends its day. [2] The highest counts by city were Los Angeles (70), Dallas (50), Denver (45), Houston (44) and Chicago (43). By state: California (673), Texas (358), Ohio (287), New York (269) and Pennsylvania (267). [2]

The financial side has climbed faster than the count. The Insurance Information Institute and State Farm put 2025 dog-bite liability claims at 28,450, worth roughly $1.86 billion, with an average claim of $65,450. [3] In 2016 the same figures were 18,123 claims at an average of $33,230 — so claim volume is up 57% over that stretch and the average cost has nearly doubled. [3] Claim volume jumped 25.6% in 2025 alone. [3]

Those claims generally land on a homeowners or renters policy, which is the quiet reason a dog's behavior at the door is also a household finance question. Coverage and breed exclusions vary a good deal between insurers, so it's worth knowing what your own policy actually says rather than assuming. We're not insurance advisers, and the only reliable answer is the one in your declarations page.

The doorway is its own situation

A dog who is relaxed with visitors once they're inside is not necessarily the same dog at a half-open door with a stranger on the step holding a clipboard. The space is narrow, the person is standing still and facing the dog directly, and the dog is often already wound up from the knock. It's a poor setup, and it may not say much about how the dog behaves anywhere else.

USPS's advice to owners is built around removing that moment rather than trying to manage it in real time: [2]

• Put the dog in a separate room with the door closed before you open the front door.
• If you step outside, make sure the door is firmly latched behind you.
• Keep the dog on a leash if it's outdoors while someone is on the property.
• Don't take mail — or a flyer — directly from someone's hand while your dog is right there, and teach children to do the same.
• Sign up for Informed Delivery so you know roughly when your carrier is coming.

The service also notes what happens when a problem doesn't get resolved: delivery can be suspended for the address, with mail held for pickup at the Post Office, and in some cases the household ends up renting a PO box. [2]

The other risk at the same open door

The same doorway produces a second, quieter problem: a dog or cat slipping past while everyone's attention is on the conversation. Nobody notices for a minute or two, and by then the animal is a street away.

Two things make that recoverable. A collar tag someone can read at arm's length, without needing a phone or an app, is what a neighbor uses in the first ten minutes. And a microchip is only as good as the phone number registered to it — if you've changed numbers or moved since the chip went in, the record is the thing to fix rather than the chip.

A ten-minute version, before tomorrow

• Decide now where the dog goes when the door gets knocked, and put a leash within reach of it.
• Check that the collar tag is still legible and that the phone number on your chip registration is one you answer.
• If your dog is reactive at the door, a sign helps more than it looks like it should: Dog — please don't knock, leave materials at the door. Most canvassers and carriers will take the hint gladly.
• If a bite does happen, get the person's name and contact details, get them medical attention, and call your insurer early rather than late.

Canvassing stops tomorrow night. The front door doesn't, and the same five minutes of setup covers the deliveries, the holidays and the rest of the winter.

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Sources

1. MPR News, Minnesota get-out-the-vote efforts ramp up as Election Day approaches, October 29, 2026. https://mprnews.org/story/2026/10/29/minnesota-get-out-the-vote-efforts-ramp-up-as-election-day-approaches
2. U.S. Postal Service Newsroom, Postal Service Names Top Cities and States for Dog Attacks on Mail Carriers, May 28, 2026. https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2026/0528-postal-service-names-top-cities-and-states-for-dog-attacks-on-mail-carriers.htm
3. Insurance Information Institute, Spotlight on: Dog bite liability. https://www.iii.org/article/spotlight-on-dog-bite-liability
4. U.S. Postal Service, National Dog Bite Awareness Campaign. https://about.usps.com/what/corporate-social-responsibility/activities/dog-bite-awareness.htm