Archive for November 4th, 2008

Close calls

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

Okay, it’s the night of the big election and the reports are pouring in.  And to generate excitement, networks are “calling” states for Obama and McCain.

Here’s MSNBC, calling South Carolina for McCain:

MSNBC calls South Carolina for McCain!

MSNBC calls South Carolina for McCain!

While I do realize that Obama has a snowball’s chance in Hell of winning South Carolina, isn’t it customary for the winner of an election to have more votes than the loser?

Here’s CNN calling Maine for Obama:

Maine goes to Obama!

Maine goes to Obama!

… with a grand total of three votes in!  I know that Maine is a pretty small state, but … three votes decides the election?  Obama by a 2:1 margin … literally.

I voted

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

I voted.

It was a rather odd experience, actually.  The polling place I was assigned to was an elementary school – one in desperate need of a new building.  They were also in deperate need of signs telling people where to go.  Other than a few “Vote Here” signs pointing from the street into the parking lot, the only other obvious sign anywhere on any of the doors was a paper sign reading “EXIT”.  After wandering the empty corridors of the school for a minute or two, I finally found out that the way to get to the voting machines was to go into the door marked “EXIT”.

Despite the talk of long lines and wiating around in the rain to vote, there was only one person in line ahead of me.  There were two lines based on last name, and there were probably about eight people in the other line.  Still, there was essentially no wait at 2 PM.  (My wife, who was assigned to a different polling place through some stupidity at the local voter registration office, said she had to wait about 25 minutes.)

So get out there and vote, if you haven’t already!