WI: Balmy Skies in the Badger State

By Joby Warrick
Voters in Milwaukee had to contend with the same long lines as everyone else, but the real conversation-starter was the weather. An unusual warm spell had some people going to polling stations in shorts and even flip-flops, a sight rarely seen in Wisconsin on election day. Temperatures climbed well into the 70s under sunny skies by midday, more than 20 degrees higher than normal for early November.

The same weather pattern was responsible for unusually balmy conditions for voters throughout the Midwest, from Detroit and Minneapolis to Des Moines and St. Louis. Some voters said the favorable weather made the crowds friendlier and the long waits more bearable.

"Waited in line, but why complain?" one Milwaukee voter wrote in an on-line forum at the Journal-Sentinel newspaper's website. "I couldn't ask for a better election day!"