I got my absentee ballot in the mail, and it is a safe bet that it will make no difference to the outcome. I vote in Dennis Hastert's district in Illinois, and he will win handily. The Senate race in Illinois is not remotely close. And John Kerry is about as likely to lose Illinois as he is to win Texas. But I voted anyway, because I am a politics junky. (Or as a friend of mine puts it, he loves politics because it is the last remaining legal bloodsport.) But most people have more sense than to care that much about politics, preferring to leave their passions for more important things, like baseball. I would guess that a lot of people in Hastert's district who would plan to vote straight Republican (as I did), will stay home.

So I am puzzled by Daniel Drezner, who asks:

what are the odds that Kerry loses the popular vote but wins the Electoral College? If that happened, how would both parties react? Would the Electoral College survive in its current form?