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As tens of millions of US citizens living on the East Coast of the United States brace for possible devastation from Hurricane Sandy, few might realize the key role the dramatic weather might play in the close presidential election only eight days away.

The hurricane is expected to affect a large area of the country, including key swing states such as North Carolina, Virginia and Ohio.

Strong winds, heavy rains and snowstorms are expected to cause widespread flooding and power outages.

Already, Maryland’s Governor Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, has canceled early voting on Monday. Early voting has also been canceled for Monday in Washington DC.

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, a Republican, said his state will extend early voting hours and restore power quickly to election facilities in the event of power outages. A Washington Post poll released on Sunday revealed that Barack Obama lead Mitt Romney by 51 percent to 47 percent in Virginia, just outside the poll's margin of error. Both candidates have canceled or changed their campaign plans for the coming days due to the hurricane.

After meeting top Federal Emergency Management Agency officials on Sunday to discuss preparations for the weather, Obama, who described the hurricane as a "serious and big storm", left the White House for Florida.

Obama had planned to go ahead with events in Florida on Monday, but he made a last minute decision to cancel the event in Orlando, Florida, on Monday and return to Washington to handle the crisis caused by the storms.

As commander in chief, Obama is expected to greatly reduce his campaign time and focus on disaster relief should the hurricane cause widespread damage. While an incumbent president can easily attract criticism from people hit by the hurricane, it could also be a time for Obama to demonstrate his strong leadership.

It is believed that Republican candidate Romney will not try to exploit the hurricane to attack Obama. He faced a backlash when he blamed Obama for the handling of the US consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya, soon after the incident.

Besides forcing candidates to change their campaign plans in the last few days leading up to the election, there are also concerns that the storm might impact the election in other ways, such as causing damage to polling stations, preventing voters from seeing campaign ads, reducing TV coverage of the election and discouraging undecided voters to travel to polling stations.

With most federal offices in Washington closed on Monday, thousands of flights to the East Coast were canceled, and all public schools in New York, Washington and Boston closed. Much of the public transit system was shut down.

No one seems to know what the real impact of Hurricane Sandy will be on the close presidential race. Opinion polls show the race to be essentially tied at the national level.

A Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll released on Sunday found Obama leading Romney among likely voters by 49 percent to 46 percent.

Among all registered voters, Obama held a wider lead of 51 percent to 39 percent.

（中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑）

About the broadcaster:

CJ Henderson is a foreign expert for China Daily's online culture department. CJ is a graduate of the University of Sydney where she completed a Bachelors degree in Media and Communications, Government and International Relations, and American Studies. CJ has four years of experience working across media platforms, including work for 21st Century Newspapers in Beijing, and a variety of media in Australia and the US.