Light drizzle here in the Triad today as Election Day gears up. I passed by a church serving as a polling place near my house this morning. Cars lined up everywear on the curb and all. Line stretched out the door but people were waiting patiently in line using umbrellas to keep the rain away.

Lot of people are engaged in this election and everyone is anticipating the results, the earliest ones we will see sometime after 7pm EST. The commentariat consensus is that if Barack Obama pulls out a victory in Virginia and is very close in Indiana, then the night should be very good for him. The clincher will be the Florida and North Carolina results. A win by Obama in either state will mean that John McCain has no path to victory given that Obama is expected to carry all of the states that John Kerry won in 2004 including Pennsylanvia with New Mexico and Iowa already assumed to be in his column.

Still, no winner will be officially declared until the networks call enough states for either candidate to pass the 270 electoral vote threshold. We will know the winner beforehand no doubt as 4-6 states will act as leading indicators for the nation as a whole.

I expect a long night for me as I flip back and forth on my television catching the results and commentary. I will move the computer out into the dining room too to catch the on-line commentary and track the results on a state by state level not just for the presidential, but also Senate and congressional seats along with the Governor’s race here in North Carolina.