The thing that folks have just started noticing is that VA’s polls close at 7:00. If Obama wins by enough in VA (assuming Obama wins the state at all, which is still far from certain), the result could be called as early as 7:01. This would, in effect, mean that Obama wins the election.

However, 7:01 PM EST is only 4:01 PM PST and 5:01 PM MST. If the election essentially gets called with several hours of voting time left in all those states, what do you think the effect will be on GOP turnout in those states?

The resulting depressed turnout could turn a 5 point Obama victory into an 8 point victory, and maybe even flip some relatively close states that he’d likely lose otherwise, like Montana, into his column.

This would make no difference as to who becomes president, but down-ticket races would be heavily affected as would the narrative about Obama’s mandate.

Of course, all of this is very hypothetical and assumes that Obama takes Virginia by at least margin as large as he’s currently leading by in the polls, so that it could be called that early. Elections swing to quickly to make that kind of prediction at this point.

It’s an interesting possibility to ponder, though.

The party faithful show up no matter what, but the party faithful only make up 30 some odd percent of the electorate.

Independents, however, are hard enough to get to the polls when there’s some semblance of their vote counting. If the election is over, a lot don’t show up.

History says that more of those who don’t show up were planning on voting for the presumed loser, and that a higher percentage who were planning to vote for the presumed winner will show up anyway.

I’m not saying this to predict an Obama landslide or some such, but I am saying that if the numbers look like they do now a week from today, the GOP had better start pushing an “it isn’t over until every vote is cast” and “every vote counts” mantra. Otherwise the results may be quite a bit worse than they would’ve been if all the polls closed at the same time.