Sweaty, Married, Churchgoing, Brainiacs Most Likely to Vote

Oct. 28, 2010— -- Voting booths can't open soon enough for some people. You know, the election warriors who vote early or will queue up first thing Tuesday to greet poll workers as they arrive to open the doors.

They are the most likely voters among us; the kind of people who can recite the names of their U.S. senators and Congress members, not to mention their statehouse and council representatives.

The ones who don't just talk the talk but walk the walkway right up to the voting both time and time again, as if the fate of the nation -- and their neighborhoods -- turn on a solitary vote.

Well, whatever their motivation, research shows, they share some common characteristics that may not give them all an air of authority but surely make them recognizable to the uninitiated.

So, here is a random compilation of surveys and studies that offer some less-than-obvious hints on how to spot the neighbors and co-workers who are likeliest to embrace this most fundamental of civic duties.

Perspiration, the researchers concluded, was every bit as reliable a predictor of voter turnout as education, New Scientist reported.

Guess there's something to be said for getting all worked up over those candidate debates.

They've stayed married (with or without children), they vote. Married couples accounted for 65 percent of the voters in 2000, for instance, according to University of Utah researcher and sociology professor Nicholas Wolfinger. And even childless married couples are far more likely to vote than other childless adults.