If there is a close outcome to the next election, such things could have big consequences.
As we head into what may be a close election, with the outcome possibly subject to argument and even litigation, I hope all sides will make a good-faith effort to sort the hot air from the cold facts.
But voters resoundingly endorsed Mr. Brown's ballot initiative by 54 percent to 46 percent on Tuesday, confounding most pollsters who had been predicting a closer outcome, if not outright defeat.
North Carolina: In this, the most expensive and heavily polled contest of the year, a close outcome was always likely, and it looks like we'll get one.
The last time the Iowa caucuses produced such a close outcome was in 1980, when George Bush beat Ronald Reagan by two percentage points.
National Democrats, alarmed by a poll that showed the contest far closer than anticipated, are privately fretting that even a close outcome in a working-class swath of Brooklyn and Queens may foreshadow broader troubles for the party in 2012.
As polling day approached the opinion polls suggested a close outcome, and newspaper headlines were dominated by a slanging match over the economy.
We are also able to compare the simulated effects of one alternative with the observed effect of a recently introduced demogrant and find that the simulation is a close approximation of the empirical outcomes.
Conversations with voters across South Carolina reveal that the Republican primary tomorrow is a close, divisive contest and that the outcome will hinge on the turnout.
In the words of Stephen Biddle, who advised McChrystal on the review, increasing our military involvement in Afghanistan is "a close call on the merits," whose "outcome is uncertain" and which is "likely to increase losses and violence in the short term in exchange for a chance at stability in the longer term".
