As I write this, residents of the Mid-Atlantic states are being warned to prepare themselves for a long-lasting power outage because of Hurricane Sandy, billed as "the perfect storm" and the storm of the century. When Hurricane Irene roared through New England last year, many residents were still without power after a week. And Hurricane Irene had already weakened to a tropical storm when it hit land.

The Philadelphia Inquirer is describing Hurricane Sandy as a historic and catastrophic storm. The Wilmington News Journal's banner headline reads, "Monster threatening to slam state head-on".

So what happens if the resulting power outages last beyond Election Day, November 6? Delaware has electronic voting. All voting machines are electronic. Even in states with mechanical voting machines, power outages and the other effects of the storm may impede voting.

Can states extend voting for a few more days, or designate a different day as Election Day? That might seem reasonable, but what if lawsuits are filed alleging that a particular extension is illegal and intended to favor one party?

What if some voters are able to vote on November 6, but others are not? Will lawsuits be filed attempting to end voting as originally scheduled to preserve a temporary lead for one party or candidate?

If some states are unable to conduct or complete elections on November 6, and become enmeshed in lawsuits, how will that affect the outcome of local elections and the contest for the presidency? The Mid-Atlantic states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, are all predicted to be Obama states.

Even without Hurricane Sandy, the potential for lawsuit Armageddon was already high because of the closeness of the race electorally and in multiple swing states. I've been warning that because the presidential race seems so close, we may end up experiencing a re-play of the 2000 Florida recount battle, but on a larger scale, in multiple states, that could last as long, or even longer than the 2000 litigation.

Both the Romney and Obama campaigns have studied and learned from what happened in 2000. Both campaigns have lawyers ready in every state to file lawsuits demanding recounts and citing voting irregularities if a close vote turns against them.

The stakes are as high as can be for both campaigns. Neither has fought as long and as hard as they have, just to raise the white flag of surrender when confronted with close electoral results that hinge on contestable vote counts or procedures.

And that was true before Hurricane Sandy. So brace yourselves. It's going to be a bumpy ride! And maybe in more ways than one!

Via Brandywine to Broad

As I write this, residents of the Mid-Atlantic states are being warned to prepare themselves for a long-lasting power outage because of Hurricane Sandy, billed as "the perfect storm" and the storm of the century. When Hurricane Irene roared through New England last year, many residents were still without power after a week. And Hurricane Irene was a relatively weak Category 1 hurricane.

The Philadelphia Inquirer is describing Hurricane Sandy as a historic and catastrophic storm. The Wilmington News Journal's banner headline reads, "Monster threatening to slam state head-on".

So what happens if the resulting power outages last beyond Election Day, November 6? Delaware has electronic voting. All voting machines are electronic. Even in states with mechanical voting machines, power outages and the other effects of the storm may impede voting.

Can states extend voting for a few more days, or designate a different day as Election Day? That might seem reasonable, but what if lawsuits are filed alleging that a particular extension is illegal and intended to favor one party?

What if some voters are able to vote on November 6, but others are not? Will lawsuits be filed attempting to end voting as originally scheduled to preserve a temporary lead for one party or candidate?

If some states are unable to conduct or complete elections on November 6, and become enmeshed in lawsuits, how will that affect the outcome of local elections and the contest for the presidency? The Mid-Atlantic states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, are all predicted to be Obama states.

Even without Hurricane Sandy, the potential for lawsuit Armageddon was already high because of the closeness of the race electorally and in multiple swing states. I've been warning that because the presidential race seems so close, we may end up experiencing a re-play of the 2000 Florida recount battle, but on a larger scale, in multiple states, that could last as long, or even longer than the 2000 litigation.

Both the Romney and Obama campaigns have studied and learned from what happened in 2000. Both campaigns have lawyers ready in every state to file lawsuits demanding recounts and citing voting irregularities if a close vote turns against them.

The stakes are as high as can be for both campaigns. Neither has fought as long and as hard as they have, just to raise the white flag of surrender when confronted with close electoral results that hinge on contestable vote counts or procedures.

And that was true before Hurricane Sandy. So brace yourselves. It's going to be a bumpy ride! And maybe in more ways than one!

Via Brandywine to Broad

Usually those of us in the temperate Mid-Atlantic states think of ourselves as climatically fortunate and ideally situated for year round living. Summers are not too hot. Winters are not too cold. Extreme weather events are rare. And we thank our lucky stars when reading the news from other parts of the country beset by tornadoes or hurricanes or flooding or drought or forest fires or earthquakes.

But now we find ourselves in the crosshairs of Hurricane Sandy which threatens to converge, right on top of us, with other weather systems into what some are predicting may be "the perfect storm". And we are reminded of the stark reality that our comfortable, modern lives are always, always at the mercy of Mother Nature.

Via Brandywine to Broad

Usually those of us in the temperate Mid-Atlantic states think of ourselves as climatically fortunate and ideally situated for year round living. Summers are not too hot. Winters are not too cold. Extreme weather events are rare. And we thank our lucky stars when reading the news from other parts of the country beset by tornadoes or hurricanes or flooding or drought or forest fires or earthquakes.

But now we find ourselves in the crosshairs of Hurricane Sandy which threatens to converge, right on top of us, with other weather systems into what some are predicting may be "the perfect storm". And we are reminded of the stark reality that our comfortable, modern lives are always, always at the mercy of Mother Nature.

Via Brandywine to Broad

In an exciting and issues-rich election year, polls find us evenly divided between President Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney. Swing states are being subjected to an unprecedented assault of political advertising, enabled by the Supreme Court's opinion in Citizens United treating unlimited political spending as the equivalent of free speech.

To whom is all this advertising directed, since nearly all of us have already made up our minds? Is anyone reading this, for example, likely to change his or her vote because of a TV commercial?

All that expensive advertising is directed at the very small number of voters whose votes are susceptible to being changed by advertising. Who are those voters? They are voters who haven't been paying attention to the campaign, don't know much about the issues or the candidates, but who will cast a vote anyway. This plays to the advantage of Mitt Romney, who is trying to recast himself as a reasonable moderate, after declaring himself "severely conservative" throughout the primary campaign.

Although he repeatedly pledged to repeal all of Obamacare, Romney now declares his intention to preserve all the popular parts of Obamacare, and get rid of only the bad parts. Although he condemned the entire Dodd-Frank law placing restrictions on Wall Street, he now says he will keep the reasonable parts of that law, too. What a reasonable guy!

Having signed the Republican pledge to never, ever raise taxes by even a penny, Romney promised during the primary campaign that he would reject a deficit-cutting deal that cut spending by $10 for every $1 in new taxes. But now he criticizes President Obama for failing to enact the proposals of the Simpson-Bowles commission on the deficit, which called for big spending cuts together with big tax increases. New, more reasonable Romney can ignore Paul Ryan's vote, as a member of the commission, against the proposals.

As top Romney advisor Eric Fehrnstrom predicted in response to a question whether Romney had tacked too far to the right to re-position himself as a moderate in the general election, "I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It's almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again."

That turns out to be a good strategy to reach the undecided low-information voter. And as a result, the race is a dead heat in both the popular vote and the more important Electoral College.

I hope I'm wrong, but if the outcome turns out to be as close as the polls are predicting, we can expect a re-play of the 2000 Florida recount battle, but on a larger scale, in multiple states, that could last as long, or even longer than the 2000 litigation.

Both campaigns have studied and learned from what happened in 2000. Both campaigns have lawyers ready in every swing state to file lawsuits demanding recounts and citing voting irregularities if a close vote turns against them.

And don't think this could have been avoided by switching to a simple popular vote to decide the presidency. In a close election, that would trigger election challenges in every jurisdiction where any allegation of voting irregularity could be made, including absentee, military and overseas voting. That could mean high-stakes lawsuits in all 50 states and even the District of Columbia!

So we should be grateful to still have the Electoral College written into the Constitution by the founding fathers. And I'm sure all the candidates agree, whatever the result, we should be grateful this long political campaign is finally coming to an end!

Via Brandywine to Broad