Thanks to the 2000 presidential election debacle -- most of it centered here in Florida -- both major parties have amassed a storehouse of legal firepower. As voters head to the polls Tuesday, judicial decisions and the mere presence of lawyers have already affected some midterm elections across the country.

Two weeks after supporters of Amendment 8 began a campaign to urge Floridians to vote in favor of the constitutional change that would relax caps on class sizes, opponents of the measure are fighting back.

Early voting appears to be catching on, according to a survey of elections supervisors who say that the millions of dollars spent on gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races may be raising turnout across the state.