For most people, voting means standing in line with other grudging citizens on a specially designated day every couple of years. But in many places around the country, a single election "day" doesn't really exist. Thirty-four states allow some form of early voting (alas, not New York), and around 30 percent of the electorate took advantage of it in 2008. Which means that even before Election Day, early voting provides a sample of the voting patterns that could determine the outcome of the election. According to the AP, Democrats perhaps surprisingly, considering the enthusiasm gap everyone's been talking about for months have an edge so far. More Democrats than Republicans have to date voted in "Iowa, Maryland, North Carolina, Louisiana and Nevada's heavily Democratic Clark County, which supplied two-thirds of the state's voters in 2008," while more Republicans have voted in Florida and Colorado. Take it all with a grain of salt, though, because this all represents only 3 million votes cast nationwide.
Meanwhile, in a look at races around the country, Lisa Murkowski supporters think they can handle a write-in vote, Sharron Angle wonders how Harry Reid got so rich, and a Republican congressional candidate in South Dakota doesn't want people to know that she's a terrible, terrible driver.