What if today were election day?

What if this day, this Tuesday, were election day and not next Tuesday?

Would voting be extended in the states affected by Sandy? In states where 7.5 million are without power.

Or would the electoral process just have to “suck it up”? Just the way it sucks up the disconnect between the popular vote and the electoral college vote.

And who might have benefited under the hypothetical scenario that would have laid Sandy's devastation on top of voting day? My guess is that those who typically suffer from stress and live marginally anyway would be all the more stressed and marginalized by the storm. They would be less likely to vote.

Another guess is that they would be primarily Democrats. Would Pennsylvania actually go Republican? What about New York?

I doubt the one percent would be affected at all under this scenario. But, hypothetical situations aside, Mitt Romney, who portrayed 47percent of the population as self-described victims, may now have to recalculate his estimate. The nation suddenly has a whole lot more victims, REAL victims, and is going to have to spend a lot more money helping to get them back on their feet.

My guess is that they will still be victims a week from today...on the real election day.

So is this little hypothetical worth considering? I think so. Contrary to the impression the news media give us, disasters don’t fit neatly into news cycles. They go on for months and even years. How are things in Joplin, Missouri, these days? What about Haiti?

A week from today you can bet things will be a whole lot different along the Sandy’s path of destruction, and those differences will change how people vote...if, that is, they can get to the polls to vote at all.