Polls? Taxing

I dragged myself to Democratic HQ by 9:05AM, then spent the next eight hours sitting in the old casino in Congress Park, making a total of twenty-five checkmarks in boxes. Democracy is boring when it works. About 225 people (out of 520) voted while I was there, 25 of whom were on my list. That's great turnout (with four hours to go), but it still works out to an average of one person every two minutes, so we were never what you'd call busy. There were no lines, no machine troubles, no questionable behavior by campaigners. The election inspectors—two Rs, two Ds—were all friends and moderates (one of the Rs was rooting for Ford in TN), and after some initial suspicion (and dickering over where I was allowed to sit) they were very friendly with me as well. So, eight hours of chatting about Halloween and the charter initiative and election nitty-gritty, of wandering around the casino's beautiful old ballroom by myself, of reading The Book of the Long Sun, of munching the snacks provided by the various parties.

One point of local interest: you know the charter initiative, which has dominated local news and yardsignage for months, which had intraparty squabbling at an all-time high? (You don't, but play along.) Nobody could find it on the ballot. It was tucked away in a top corner, and more than a few people left the booth asking, "I thought I was going to have a chance to vote on the charter initiative?" And so the importance of ballot design to democracy is once again underlined.

I have an invitation to Kirsten Gillibrand's victory (we hope) celebration tonight, but I am so exhausted I may stay home and be a news potato. I'll probably turn into a gibbering weeper all over the first person who looks at me crosseyed, so it might be best for me to stay in. Lack of sleep + political tension = j7y-mess.

[Edit: just got my third fourth "Please go vote!" call since voting at 7:30PM. *sigh*]