Election Day is over. Gasoline prices are up.

Lawrence residents awakening Wednesday to a new era of Democratic control in Congress – among the results from voting nationwide Tuesday – also found that gasoline prices had climbed once again at area service stations.

Fuel that had cost $1.99 a gallon to $2.05 a gallon Tuesday went for $2.05 to $2.19 less than a day later.

Jim Hanni, spokesman for AAA Kansas, which tracks gasoline prices at www.fuelgaugereport.com, said that the pumped-up prices could be a matter of fairly normal price volatility, or even a matter of coincidence.

Or not.

“Analysts are saying that the outcomes of the elections could drive prices higher if the market thought that meant we’d be pulling out of Iraq and leaving the world’s oil reserves less secure,” Hanni said.