The U.S. Election Day is front-page news in many of today's British newspapers and, as was the case four years ago, a British colleague asked me who I think is going to win.

My reasoned reply amounted to a shrug, given polls that mostly show the Bush-Kerry race to be a dead heat.

But, if the contest produces a clearcut winner, we expats in London won't know until morning, if then. The first results from the East Coast will start coming in around midnight here.

If there is no clear winner -- and there appears to be a good chance of a repeat of 2000 -- I fully expect co-workers from Britain, New Zealand and elsewhere to ask me to explain the wrangling that follows. It won't be easy.