Can you predict who will control the House and Senate after Tuesday?

House of Representatives (total seats 435). Predict the number of seats won by:
Democrats
Republicans
Others

Senate (total seats 100)Predict the number of seats held after the election by:
Democrats
Republicans
Others

Tie-Breaker What percentage of the vote will Joe Lieberman receive in the Senate race in Connecticut? Make your prediction to up to two decimal places.

Scoring Your score in each case will be the absolute difference between your prediction and the actual result, and your scores for all the predictions are added up. The player with the lowest overall score wins. Thus if you predict the Democrats to win 240 House seats and they win 226, you score 14, if you think the Republicans will finish with 49 Senate seats and they actually have 52, you score 3, and so on.

The tie-breaker will be scored in the same way (difference between prediction and result). Whether you are over or under in your predictions does not affect the scoring. Note that elected candidates’ party affiliations are determined by their designation on the ballot, not which party bloc they vote with in Congress.

Only entries posted before 2359 GMT on Monday will count.

Paul Maggs

A note about the prize from Mike Smithson. Thanks to Paul for once again organising a prediction competition. The prize for the wining entry will be a copy of my book on politics and betting which has been commissioned by Harriman House – the publisher which has just taken over the Politicos bookstore. This is due to be published during 2007.