7 offbeat ways to predict election winner

By Blaire Briody

Not everyone likes uncertainty, especially when it comes to electing the next president. Yesterday Romney was on top in some polls, today it's Obama, and some people have had enough of the flip-flopping results. Instead, they’re turning to alternative methods to predict the outcome.

Whether it’s a football game, the angle of the sun, or a candidate’s height, there are all kinds of offbeat ways voters gain peace of mind as to which candidate will win tonight. Here are seven:

1. Kids Say the Darnedest Things
Your 5-year-old might not follow politics too closely, but he or she may know more than you think. Since 1940, Scholastic has held a mock election and asked children in grades 1 through 12 to cast their votes for the president. In all but two elections (1948 and 1960), the kids correctly chose the winner. This year's results came in on Oct. 10, and the winner was . . . Obama.

2. The Bushy Brow Syndrome
Most men put little effort into shaping their eyebrows, but presidential candidates might want to reconsider their lack of time in front of the mirror. According to the Grooming Lounge, a blog whose mission is to make men “even more handsome,” the candidate with the best-groomed eyebrows in 7 out of the past 8 elections has won. The anomaly occurred in 2000, when Al Gore’s nicely-shaped brows failed to win him the presidency. This year, Obama’s eyebrows are in the lead.

3. Pro Football Prophecies
A lot was riding on this weekend’s game between the Washington Redskins and the Carolina Panthers. In 17 of the past 18 elections, if the Redskins won their last home game before the election, the current party in office won again. The Redskins lost – so according to the rule, Obama will come up short as well.

4. Touchdown for Obama
While professional football is predicting a Romney win, college football is saying Obama. Since 1984, the Alabama Crimson Tide vs. the Louisiana State University Tigers game has correctly predicted the election. If Alabama wins, so does the Democratic nominee, and the same goes for a LSU win and the Republican candidate. On Saturday, Alabama defeated LSU by a score of 21 to 17.

5. Those Pearly Whites
Someone ought to buy Mitt Romney a box of tooth whitening strips. According to Luster Premium White, the candidate with the whitest teeth has won since 1992. And that’s not all—the contrast in whiteness between the candidates can even predict how close the race will be (for example, George W. Bush had only slightly whiter teeth than Al Gore in 2000, and thus won by a narrow margin). So unless “Romney makes a dental correction,” they say, Obama will take office again.

6. Soaring to Great Heights
For a presidential candidate, height matters, according to an analysis by The New York Times. Since 1896, the taller candidate has won nearly two-thirds of the time. Romney has a slight edge this year – Obama is 6’1’’ while Romney is 6’2’’.

7. Stock Market Swings
According to Jim Stack of InvesTech Research, an investment newsletter, the direction of stock prices in the two months prior to the election has predicted the winner 89.3 percent of the time. If it’s up, the current party will win again. This year, however, it could go either way—the market was on the upswing in September and fell in October.

Blaire Briody is a Life+Money Editor at The Fiscal Times. Subscribe to The Fiscal Times' free newsletter.

More from The Fiscal Times

• You Can Be an Election Pundit! 9 Key Talking Points
• The Election Outcome Wall Street Wants Most
• Which Candidate Is Better for Your Family Finances?