Is weather an election worry? - 13abc.com Toledo (OH) News, Weather and Sports

As Hurricane Sandy pounds the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, election watchers wonder what impact the storm could have in the battleground state of Ohio.   We talked with Republicans and Democrats about how their get out the vote efforts may be affected by Hurricane Sandy and both sides told us the storm will not affect what they do.  But the question is: will it affect what *voters* do?

"Findlay, OH may be the place that decides who the next president is"

Sunday's appearance in Findlay by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan may be the last for a few days.

Romney joined Ryan because the storm forced him to cancel an event in Virginia.

President Obama flew into Florida but decided against campaigning there and choose to return to the White House to deal with the storm.

At Obama's Toledo headquarters, volunteers are still working to get out the vote.  Eastern Ohio will be hardest hit by the hurricane but the bet is it will *not* affect Ohio's vote.

Lucas County Democratic Party chairman, Ron Rothenbuehler told 13 abc's Bill Hormann there is one concern.  "I do think that (the storm) will affect the early voting centers if there's power outages.  That has been discussed and certainly we'd be out of business without electricity."

But at the county's early voting center in Toledo, plenty of business today.  The early voting center was packed.

One voter told us, "It's going to rain for the next four or five days so next Tuesday's going to be crazy whoever didn't get out and vote."

Republicans aren't letting the weather get them down, either.  They insist voter excitement is creating it's own energy.

Lucas County Republican Party chairman Jon Stainbrook says, "Come whatever and high water, they will still get out the vote because this election matters.  This is for all the beans."

And just like with the Democrats, Republicans insist they will weather the storm to meet voters.

One volunteer leading a get out the vote campaign told 13abc, "We're going to be out every single day doing door to door making sure we get the word out for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan things have to change now."

The Obama camp has a couple advantages:  they have 100 more campaign offices around the state than Romney to help reach voters, and  they have a lead among early voters... which could be critical if the weather keeps people from the polls on election day.