12.5 hours later, here's an update:

I now think it may be well over 320 electoral; looks like FL, OH, PA all could be wins, and if so, it's a landslide.

I really hope "they" don't call it too soon.  I believe in free speech issues around this but the west coast has about 3 hours of useful voting time left.

I practiced (in my head) the beginning of Obama's acceptance speech in Grant Park while I was in the shower this afternoon.  We'll see how close I got.

A few weeks back, we registered by mail (which was encouraged by our county registrar over doing so in person), and got back our "you're registered" postcards from the state right away.  The polling place printed on the card was a few blocks away at the "X Residence" where X is a girl's first name, or a family last name.  We had never heard of this place; my best guess was a small community college dorm, or maybe a park's or school's official building name.  Nothing came up on the web searches.  But the address did, and it was blocks away, so whatever.

And you know by now what "X Residence" was, right?  It was someone's house!  The "X's" garage, to be specific, complete with basketball hoop, dog on a leash (not pictured), and their kid politely passing out the "I voted" stickers.  For a city slicker in terms of past voting, it was really quite surprising.



For some reason, still unknown, LRock was on the supplemental list (of 3 people) but I was on the main list.  It was electric voting, my first experience thereof, but well done.  Not a touch screen, but a knob and enter buttons.  The screen looked exactly like the sample ballot printed off the web, which was a must considering that there were over a dozen races AND a dozen propositions.  I am proud to report that I researched every race, up to and including local water commissioner.  I also came to a "no" conclusion, with the analytical assistance of LRock, on the three state propositions I was on the fence on a week ago.  Back to the voting machine, it confirms your votes on screen and on a piece of paper built into the machine, giving you a chance to change your mind.

So we brought ZRock to his first voting process with much fanfare.  While on line (in the driveway, mind you) I gave him a soaring, inspiring, utterly pompous speech about how representative democracy works and why it is so important.  We let him run the machines, gave him our stickers, etc.  After literally 8 minutes he was yelling (in the X's garage) "This is SO boring.  I HATE voting.  I am NEVER going to VOTE again.  Let's go."  I finish, and say I'll take him outside.  "NO!  Let's leave NOW!  Let's leave without Mommy! [who was still voting]"

Now in the car, driving home the 0.1 mile it takes, I mention casually that since we have voting stickers we're entitled to a free donut, scoop of ice cream and coffee.  ZRock is quite attentive, as is LRock and we drive right by the house and off to Krispy Kreme.  On the way, ZRock insists that we should have voted for John McCain, by name, and correctly.  When asked why, he said happily that McCain was a cool name.  His mood strongly enhanced by the prospect of the donut, he proclaimed that he now "loved voting," that he was "just kidding" in the garage, etc.

We got our free donut without any complaint from the store, along with a good number of like-minded citizens, and drove home.  After playing cars in the driveway for a while, we went inside and made two pumpkin pies (store bought shells), which are cooking as I finish this entry, awaiting a long night of election results watching.  I am comforted by the fact that this election seems likely to be determined solely by the people who voted.

Great not good song for you to listen to while thinking about the Congressional races tonight:
Power to Change by The Black and White Years