OhioWith the polls closing soon and results hours away, campaign experts are among those trying to predict what will happen and when. longtime Republican strategist Mike Dawson and Franklin County Democratic Party chair Greg Haas talked with Ohio Public Radio's Karen Kasler about whether the race will be close enough to need to wait for the provisional ballots to be counted -- November 17th. Dawson says he thinks it will, while Haas says it depends on what's happening today with provisional ballots.
Haas: If we get into the 200-thousand range of provisionals...
Kasler: .... which is what we had in 2008.
Haas:... yeah; that could be a problem.
Kasler: Real quickly: what makes you think that?
Dawson: I think the election is going to be very, very close. I mean, I remember in 2004 as I'm sure Greg does -- Kerry was seriously thinking about not conceding on election night because of the number of provisional ballots that were outstanding in Ohio.
Dawson notes early voting rates are up in counties carried by McCain in 2008, and down in counties carried by Obama – but adds that doesn’t mean the candidate who won four years ago will win those counties again. Haas says he’s confident that Obama will prevail, as the incumbent did in the close race in Ohio in 2004.