This year, Daylight Saving Time ends on November 7th. Under current law, November 2nd is the only possible day that daylights saving time could end after the general election. Daylight Saving Time traditionally ended in the last weekend of October until the law was changed several years ago.
So how does DST make the last few hours of election day different?
Here in the Kansas City area, the forecast is for the sunset to be around 6:15PM CDT. Polls close in Missouri at 7pm. So if DST were to not be in effect, the sunset would occur 105 minutes before polls closed instead of 45 minutes before polls closed. Possibly meaning that working people could get home with the sun out, eat something, and choose to vote late. Instead of getting home with the sun about to set, eating, seeing that the sun has set and reclining. How much of an effect could this have? Possibly minimal. It might make it easier to continue hardcore GOTV efforts through a later time than would be expected without DST.
How does DST impact other states?
Outside of Philadelphia, there are three competitive Congressional seats (Murphy, the seat held by Sestek, and maybe Gerlach's seat because local custom dictates that Gerlach can't win big), as well turnout in Philadelphia for the Sestek/Toomey race will be of importance to having a solid majority in the Senate. Polls close in Pennsylvania at 8pm EDT, and the sun will set in Philadelphia at 5:57pm EDT, as opposed to previous years where the sunset may be occurring an hour earlier. Over in Pittsburgh and Erie (both in the vicinity of competitive races), the sunset will occur around 6:15 EDT.
Other projected times of sunsets in the Eastern Time Zone include 6:20pm EDT (Cleveland) with the polls closing at 7:30 EDT in Ohio with a sunset of 6:28pm in Columbus and 6:36pm in Cincinnati. Charleston, WV's sunset is at 6:26pm with polls closing 64 minutes later and Charleston, SC's sunset is at 6:28pm with polls closing 32 minutes later.
Louisville, Kentucky will see the polls close before the sunset, as the polls close at 6pm EDT and the sun will set around 6:43pm EDT. The same will apply in Indianapolis, Indiana (polls closing at 6pm EDT and the sun setting at 6:41 EDT).
Milwaukee will see the sun set at 5:42pm CDT with the polls closing at 8pm CDT. The sun will set minutes later in Chicago, with polls closing in Illinois at 7pm CDT. Out in Houston, the sun sets at 6:43 CDT and the polls close at 7pm CDT.
Out in Denver, the sun sets at 5:57pm MDT and the polls close at 7pm MDT. While in Los Angeles, the sun sets at 6pm PDT with polls closing at 8pm PDT.
You can view the poll closing times for yourself and the sunset times come from timeanddate.com (and your sun coverage may vary slightly from the times given).
Also worth noting (and easy to overlook), that with daylight saving time being in effect on election day, there'll be more polling done before the sun rises than is usual for a November election. Time will tell if the usual "Gotta get there now before it's crowded.. oh no, everybody else is here" lines occur early on election day like they did in 2008 in some precincts.
So, what's your call?