I'm not so sure about that. I live in Alaska and drove by polling stations several times on election day. I have honestly never seen them so crowded.
Further, we had two contentious races for the house and the senate. I very much doubt that the national returns would have had any impact on turn-out.
I do find it rather confusing that polls place Mark Begich was ahead of Ted Stevens by 10, yet he lost the election. Ethan Berkowitz was up by 5 and lost also. It really does give me pause because polls may be off, but they're usually not that far off.
Alaska is a VERY conservative state. But the more moderate people, like me, were really coming out of the closet for this election, particularly as the national results poured in. To me, moderates and serious democrats seem to have hit the polls in force for this election.
I guess my perception must have been a radical example of sampling error. Right?