Among the many voting surprises of the past month, the only thing that might exceed Barack Obama carrying reliably red Indiana is Dolphins kicker Dan Carpenter leading the fans' Pro Bowl voting for AFC special-teams players.

Carpenter being named the AFC's Special Teams Player of the Month for November is easy to explain. He hit a last-minute, game-winning field goal against Oakland, went 4 for 4 on field-goal attempts in a 26-17 victory at Denver and, last Sunday in St. Louis, went 3 for 3 in a 16-12 victory as part of an 8-for-8 November on field-goal tries.

''Quite honestly, you could argue that in two of these ball games, the guy really -- he was a large part of what we did,'' Dolphins coach Tony Sparano said. ``A lot of credit goes to him and [kicking coach] Steve Hoffman and [special-teams coordinator] John Bonamego, the guys that work with him.''

That is not surprising. But the Pro Bowl voting, which Carpenter led with 143,174 votes at last update? Sure, the Dolphins have a large international following despite missing the playoffs for almost the entire George W. Bush administration. Yet ''Dan Carpenter'' isn't a household name among kickers -- like, say, `` Adam Vinatieri.''

''Maybe it's just a Montana following, I guess,'' said Carpenter, who played there in college. ``I guess I can't really comment any further about that.''

TRACKING HANNON

Thursday was the first Dolphins practice appearance for 6-3, 205-pound wide receiver Chris Hannon, a Sarasota Riverview graduate whom the Dolphins claimed off waivers from San Francisco. Hannon didn't see any game action there, nor during the 2006 season in Kansas City, where he signed as an undrafted free agent.

Sparano called Hannon yet another ''rock we flipped over'' in search of talent.

''Chris is a guy that we kind of knew a lot about through the draft processes,'' Sparano said. ``He's a real, real speed guy. He was a track guy in college that can flat-out go. He's a big guy. At that time, he might have been more of a track guy that was a football player, and now he's become a football player that ran track. I think that's good.''

During Tennessee's pro day in 2006, Hannon ran a 4.37 in the 40-yard dash.

SNOWBOUND NO MORE

Dolphins defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni coached from 1997 to 2004 at Syracuse University, in a part of New York often described unfavorably by those who have to go there in the winter. And there is nothing Pasqualoni will miss with this weekend's game being played inside nearby Toronto's domed Rogers Centre.

''Every once in a while there's a pretty nice day out there,'' Pasqualoni said. ``There aren't many of them, but every once in a while you get a good one this time of year in central New York.

'Don't forget what they say -- it's only lake-effect snow: `Don't worry, Coach, it's just lake effect.' But in my 18 years at Syracuse, I never figured out the difference between real snow and lake-effect snow.''

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