Election Day Weather: Storm With Wet and Windy Conditions Could Affect Turnout

Video: NOAA predicts unusual winter weather

Weather forecasters are reporting that a large storm could affect portions of the Midwest to the South to the Northeast during Election Day on Nov. 6.

Some gusty wind and hard rain could be possible.

“Wind-driven rain in the Great Lakes and Northeast. Some wind gusts will exceed 40 mph in parts of the Great Lakes, interior Northeast and southeastern New England,” said The Weather Channel’s forecast.

It added: “Scattered rain and thunderstorms from the Northeast into parts of the Southeast. Some of those thunderstorms could be severe across the South and mid-Atlantic. Some wet snow–or rain changing to snow–is possible from North Dakota to northern Minnesota and Upper Michigan. Light snowfall totals are expected.”

“Damaging winds and a few tornadoes are possible, as well as locally heavy rainfall,” the network added.

“The severe weather threat shifts east into parts of the Southeast and mid-Atlantic Tuesday,” said the National Weather Service on Twitter.

AccuWeather made a similar prediction: Thunderstorms are slated to hit the South and Mid-Atlantic region. What’s more, damaging winds and flash flooding are possible.

A slight risk was issued for this region on Election Day (as seen in yellow), and the heavy rains and strong storms will also move up into the Northeast in the afternoon, which may bring some flash flooding in the area, ABC noted.

Weather forecasters are reporting that a large storm could affect portions of the Midwest to the South to the Northeast during Election Day on Nov. 6. The bright yellow area indicates the risk of a potential thunderstorm. (NOAA)

Meanwhile, some snow could fall in the Rockies and Cascades.

But forecasters have noted that most of the West Coast and the Plains region will stay dry.

“Weather was found to be, on average, nearly 20 percent of the change in voter turnout based on our analysis,” according to AccuWeather’s Tim Loftus.“ Democrats are more weather sensitive, when compared to Republicans, and among the most weather-sensitive were African-Americans, those 65 and older and 18-24 year olds,” he said.

A study from Dartmouth College released earlier this year found that “bad weather affects U.S. voter turnout and election outcomes with past research demonstrating that the Republican Party has the advantage.”

They found that Republican candidates have an “advantage when it rains may be due in part to voters changing their partisan preference that day,” the college said in a news release.

They found that at least 1 percent of voters in the United States who may have voted for a Democrat had the weather been good switched their vote to Republican on rainy days.

“Our study suggests that weather conditions may affect people’s decisions on not only whether to vote but also who they vote for,” Yusaku Horiuchi, a professor of government at Dartmouth and co-author of a study, said in a news release.