I done voted

Edith and I woke up early, like it was Christmas. And it feels like Christmas! Last night I just wanted to go to sleep so I could wake up and it would finally be election day. We trucked over at 7:01 to our polling place we used in the primary, meeting lots of excited folks carrying coffee mugs along the way. The line going into the cafeteria, for 7-12 was extra long (50 people? 75?), but our place was in the art classroom and the line was much shorter. The election judge was handing out oatmeal cookies to the longer line, especially the older folks. A guy in a scooterchair beepbeepbeeped his way to the front of the line. Two cops were present, hanging out. People's smiles were huge. After about 15 minutes we got up to the front.

And they didn't have our names.

"But we voted here in the primary," we said.

"Nope, nope - oh there you are. You're supposed to be voting at Brent-xxx School."

And they printed out a little slip of paper with the address and our names on it.

Oops! I guess we had finally changed our address only when we last voted, and sure enough, when we went back home, our MD sample ballots had the Brent-xxx School location on them.

Edith went off to school, to vote later this afternoon, and I puttered around, heading over around 8:30. Took about 10 minutes, moving quickly, but with fewer people, the festive atmosphere was also reduced. I'm always so convinced I have somehow hit the wrong button, so I double and triple checked everything.

Our local NPR, WYPR is reporting no problems so far in MD, just some long lines. On my drive into work (it is so nice out, I thought to bike, but the Surly's in the shop getting its cable disconnectors installed...and also I am lazy and scared of the increased number of car crashes on Election Day) one of the election judges was getting interviewed outside our polling place.

Party at my place tonight....Baked Alaska, arugula salad, pizzas, and lots of HOPE that we're finally gonna elect this guy. What a long road.