The likelihood is that this election will not be like 1996, when every state had lower turnout.

It has not been a great turnout because of the storms that hit the central part of the state.

I think the first real set of polls that might give us some indication will occur during the coming week.

Absentee voters,in general, tend to be more upscale and therefore likely to be more Republican. On the other hand, the bulk of the absentees is in the West Coast and particularly in California, and that tends to be a little more liberal. So we don't know.

Some of the battleground states, particularly those with other high-profile elections -- Florida, Michigan, Missouri and Washington -- may have higher turnout. But since about 33 states and the District of Columbia were not targeted by the campaigns, it is likely that turnout will fall in most of those states.

There are 1.1 million outstanding in California, absentees that haven't been counted, (and) 900,000 that haven't been counted in Washington.