information overload

there are way too many numbers on the cnn screen there. and hey, now wolf blitzer has just asked ralph nader if he's disappointed with his numbers. ha!

anyway, i got up early this morning anticipating long lines at the polling place up the street. but when i got there at 8 am, there was no line to speak of. i had to look up my polling place on the internet -- i was expecting a postcard in the mail with my polling place and precinct number like i used to get in colorado. when i got there, i had no idea what my precinct number was, so i just asked one of the nice old ladies manning the poll, and she said to look it up in a little book sitting on a table. and sure enough, there was a printout of a spreadsheet or something listing all of the registered voters associated with this polling place, their addresses, and precinct numbers. i was reminded of a scene in the excellent john cusack movie, "grosse pointe blank," wherein an assassin walks into a high school reunion looking for john cusack, looks down at the pile of name tags yet to be taken, and introduces himself as one of them to gain access to the reunion. i'm sure that analogy makes plenty of sense, so let me rephrase -- if i had wanted to, i could have picked any name off of that list and gone to vote as that person.

but i figured, surely i'll have to identify myself to the nice old lady in order to get my ballot. not that she'd be able to verify that i was who the id said i was, any more than the kids checking id's at the airport can spot a fake id. riiiiight. i gave my name, signed on the line, and got my ballot.

washington's ballots are of the standardized-test flavor, wherein i was given a ballpoint pen (apparently #2 pencils are passe) and told to fill in the bubbles next to my choices. the polling booths were of the little unfolding-plastic persuasion, about belly-button high, no curtains.

after filling out my ballot, i looked around the room for what to do next. there was a big machine thingy near the door that looked promising, so i headed over there, saw that there was a slot to slide my vote into, and did so. i didn't note the name of the machine (bad nerd!), but it took a hold of my ballot much like the dollar feed on a vending machine and took it into its metal and plastic innards.

and that was it. i was surprised that it didn't take so long, but i guess i was mostly expecting to stand in line for a while. i brought my ipod and everything. but i didn't get an "i voted today" sticker. i've never gotten a sticker. do colorado and washington just not get the stickers? what's with that?

alright, back to staring at all the moving numbers. some folks will be coming over in a bit for some cnn-watching and drinking.