Voter Turnout: Get Out the Weather Map

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We’re in for a record turnout, but just how high will it be? Political scientist Michael McDonald, who excludes noncitizens, felons, and other ineligble over-18ers, predicts we’ll sit right next to the high from 100 years ago, 65.4% of eligible voters when, in 1908, William Henry Howard Taft defeated anti-evolution Dem William Jennings Bryan in a landslide.

One predictor of turnout? The weather. Though with people as pissed off as they are with eight years of corruption, wars, and debacle after debacle, rain and long lines likely won’t keep many people away. Overall, bad weather and rain will help McCain though, if only on the margins. Here’s the latest Weather Channel map, with rain and showers scattered throughout the battleground states of North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Colorado, and Montana. (Fox is already reporting rain-related problems in Virginia.)

weather.jpg

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