vote early, vote often

scott and i voted early tonight. the polls closed at 5pm, so we rushed down the closest polling place at the budlong woods library and stood in line. there were about 20-30 people in front of us. i thought they would just close the doors and tell us remainders to go home, but they herded us into an adjoining room where we waited for our turn to vote.

it was all electronic touch-screen, which was pretty cool. none of those crazy chads to deal with, thank you very much. one of the volunteers said that this week they've had 500 people a day. and this is just one small library on the north side of chicago. the other 50 polling places were probably just as busy, if not more. the place downtown, as a woman in line with us commented, had "close to a thousand people" standing in line to vote at lunchtime.

it took about 40 minutes from start to finish. pretty painless, really. and now we don't have to get out of bed at 5:30am to get to the polls before work. scott's taking the day after the election off, to either celebrate or mourn. i'm hoping we're celebrating. i just don't think i will be able to handle it if mccain and his honey win.

but really, it doesn't matter who you are voting for, get out there and exercise your american right to vote. it's fun and civic all at the same time. and maybe, if you're lucky, you'll be in a booth next to a mother and her 9-month-old son who will happen to pull out the plug for a bank of electronic touch-screens. that was pretty funny.