Icy Rain Interferes With Primary Voting in Washington Area:
Unfortunately, the terrible weather in DC right now got in the way of my primary vote, too. In my case, I left work at about 6:10 to make it to the polls that closed at 7; but what should have been a 15-minute trip home turned into a parking lot on the way out of the District. There was no way I was going to make it to the polls before they closed — each 3-minute cycle of the lights was averaging just one car advancing — so I turned around after two blocks of it and headed back to the office to work for a few more hours. Very frustrating.

  UPDATE: It occurs to me that this experience brings up an interesting argument in favor of the Electoral College system. Bad weather or national emergencies in part of the country can alter voter turnout in various regions. Under the electoral college system, bad weather or natural disasters that cause low turnout in a particular state will not lessen the political power of those in that state or area. So, for example, if there's a major storm on the East Coast on election day, the votes of those on the East Coast still have the same net effect. Assuming those who make it to the polls are representative, local weather won't have an effect. The events can still have an effect to the extent those who make it to the polls aren't representative, of course.