That task can be made more or less difficult depending on when the polls open, when they close and how many hours are available for voting in between. This year, the total time that polls are open varies by as much as a scant 11 hours in Hawaii to 15 hours in New York, according to election data compiled by Google.

Most states offer a solid 12 or 13 hours, typically between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. But a handful of states, among them Connecticut, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine and New Jersey, are more accommodating, keeping the polls open for 14 hours.

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But it's less clear that longer poll hours have much of an effect on turnout. A quick-and-dirty correlation of poll hours and 2012 voter turnout across the states suggests that there's something of a relationship between the two, with poll hour differences accounting for about 13 percent of the total variation in turnout rates between the states.

But this picture is further muddied by the availability of no-excuse absentee voting and early voting in many states. The Pew Research Center recently calculated that about 36 percent of voters availed themselves of these alternate voting methods in 2012. That share has been rising steadily over the years — only 11 percent of the total vote was cast before Election Day in 1996, according to the Census Bureau -- and seems likely to jump again this year.

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As of Thursday, more than 31 million people have voted this year, according to the U.S. Elections Project. That represents one quarter of all votes in the 2012 election.

Another confounding factor is how late the polls are open. Studies suggest that the evening hours of Election Day are the peak voting period for most people. Many seem to simply find it easier to fit in voting after the work day, rather than before it.

And again, at the state level, there's a fair amount of variation in how late polls are open. Hawaii, Indiana and Kentucky shut their doors the earliest, at 6 p.m. For a worker who customarily ends the day at 5 or 5:30, that may represent a significant hurdle for voting.

On the other hand, states such as Iowa and New York keep their polling places open until 9 p.m. Many others close at 8, while the majority shut their doors at 7 p.m.

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Given its shorter voting hours and early poll closures, it may not be a surprise that Hawaii had the lowest voter turnout in 2012, at only 45 percent. But the case of New York illustrates that long hours aren't any guarantee of high turnout either -- its 54 percent turnout rate placed it in the bottom 20 percent of the rankings in 2012.

At the other end of the spectrum, Minnesota had the highest rate of voter turnout in 2012, at 76 percent. High voter turnout has long been a point of civic pride for residents of the North Star State.