It's (almost) Showtime!

Minnesotans have about three more hours to cast their vote in the 2010 midterm election, which will determine who sits in the governor's office for the next four years and whether the state's congressional delegation will be reshaped. As usual, the state's voters appear to be doing their civic duty at a noticeably higher rate than their counterparts elsewhere across the country. By early afternoon, the Secretary of State's office estimated that about 62 percent of Minnesota's eligible voters would cast a ballot. That's a far cry from the 78 percent who voted in the 2008 presidential election, but well ahead of turnout nationally, which has been projected be as low as 40 percent of eligible voters. Although in the runup to Election Day, conservative groups had said they would mount a so-called "anti-fraud" effort across the state, the Secretary of State's office reported few cases of voter intimidation across the state. Republican Party officials created a minor Election Day kerfuffle, saying they had gotten multiple complaints about failing tabulation machines at polling places around the state. But the Secretary of State and some local election officials said they either hadn't received reports or that the issues were minor. Secretary of State Mark Ritchie attributed a relatively strong turnout Tuesday to "three strong candidates in the governor's race, which tends to pull people to the polls. Plus, there are a lot of hot local races, for sheriff and school levies and bond issues that give a lift [to turnout]." What started out as a wide-open race for governor, lacking an incumbent, appeared in the final days to be the DFL's best chance in a generation to capture the office. Democrat Mark Dayton has maintained a slight lead over Republican Tom Emmer, as the Independence Party's Tom Horner's support has faded. FiveThirtyEight, an influential polling blog, has projected that the likelihood of a Dayton win is 88.5 percent. The blog also concluded that in Minnesota's two most-watched congressional races, the incumbents appear to be safe. In the Sixth District, the costliest in the country, Rep. Michele Bachmann has a 98.6 percent likelihood of beating her Democratic challenger, while Eighth District Rep. Jim Oberstar, the dean of the state's delegation, was given a 73.5 percent chance of prevailing. Stay tuned as the night progresses.