MILLBURN -- Tobey Giat is a typical 11-year-old boy in most ways -- he likes basketball, video games and riding his bike -- except for one: He's volunteering with a presidential campaign.

On a Monday night at a Bernie Sanders phone bank in Millburn, Giat is perched over his laptop, iPhone in hand, as an automated system rings homes in Super Tuesday states.

The screen is whirling, loading, until a beep - Giat's cue.

He springs forward to read the name on the screen, then asks into the phone, "Hi, is Peggy Lou there?"

You can hear each of the recipients trying to make sense of the call, of what clearly sounds like a kid on the other end of the line. It gets interesting when the name is difficult for Giat to pronounce. Many of them ask, "Yes, but who is this?"

Go time.

"Hi. My name is Tobey, and I'm an 11-year-old volunteer with Sen. Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. Can we count on you to vote for Bernie Sanders tomorrow on Super Tuesday?"

The responses from here go a variety of ways for phone bankers, but Giat's secret weapon is his age. At his first phone bank in Springfield, he'd had a standard amount of hangups, until another volunteer suggested he mention he is 11 in his intro. It worked like a charm. Who can hang up on an 11-year-old?

"Thanks for your call, but I think I have another candidate in mind," says Peggy Lou.

"He wants to spend all our money," says Donald.

"No! I'm not voting for nobody. They all suck! I hate 'em all!" barks Perry.

Perry's answer has Giat raising his eyebrows at me and his mom, as we stifle our laughter in the background. It goes this way for a while. Giat records each response on his laptop and eats Doritos between calls.

"Are Doritos the best phone bank fuel?" this reporter asks him. A quick and definitive yes, from Giat.

Giat is happy to talk about why he likes Sanders, and specifically points to the Vermont senator's stance on education and the environment.

"I like that Bernie wants people to go to public colleges for free, and I think that education is really important and it can get you jobs," Giat says. "And he also wants to clean up the environment and stop fracking."

Ever heard an 11-year-old talk about fracking? His passion for Sanders led Giat to want to volunteer, and his mother Jessica told him to see if he could. Giat called Sanders' Vermont headquarters, where they suggested phone banking. On the day of his first phone bank, he called back again, just to double-check that they knew he was 11 and they'd let him in.

"My husband is supporting a Republican candidate and I'm undecided," says Giat's mom Jessica. "Tobey was watching a lot of news and following the political campaigns, and he decided he liked Bernie. And while that's not the popular choice in our house, that's okay. We encourage our kids to have their own ideas and opinions and it's great."

Thank you Tobey Giat for participating in democracy and for your help on my campaign. We can't do this without you. https://t.co/3ijdlZ8vrp — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 14, 2016

When asked about the other candidates, Tobey Giat holds back harsh feelings and instead answers very politically.

On Donald Trump, he says, "I think a wall between the border of America and Mexico is a very bad idea." And he rejects Hillary "because of the emails she sent."

Giat says the young voters are the reason he thinks Bernie is going to win. And yes, he's bummed he can't vote yet and thinks the voting age should be lowered to 16 because "a lot of young people are very smart and have good ideas."

When he grows up he wants to do three things: own the sleepaway camp he loves visiting each summer, be an environmentalist and become president. (Last year he ran for vice president of student council and won, but says he was totally disappointed afterward when he found out the position came with no real powers.)

Mom says Tobey, the younger of her two sons, is "a great student, organized, diligent, creative and always happy. He gets along with everybody." He loves animals, she says, especially the sloth, because "it always looks like it's smiling," her son adds. The Giat family lives in Livingston.

Watching him make his phone bank calls, I ask if it's ever painful to hear Tobey get hung up on or yelled at. "It is a little," she says.

But her son is resilient.

Depending on how the voters he calls answer, a new script will pop up. If a responder says they're undecided, he doubles down: "Is there anything I can say to persuade you to vote for Bernie Sanders?" If all else fails, it's "Thank you anyway." And if they say they're voting for Bernie, Giat's face lights up.

"Yes, I'm voting for Bernie! Feel the Bern!" answers an enthusiastic Minnesota voice on the other end.

"Great!" Giat replies with an ear-to-ear grin. "Thank you for being a voter!"

11-year-old Bernie Sanders volunteer is pro at phone banks 11 Gallery: 11-year-old Bernie Sanders volunteer is pro at phone banks

Jessica Remo may be reached at jremo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessicaRemoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.