I arrived at my polling place around 11:15 or so. There were plenty of cars in the parking lot, but there was no line, or at least no line that was visible from the outside. There was a short line inside the school, but the County Board of Election Supervisors had clearly anticipated and adequately prepared for a large turnout, because they had four check-in stations instead of the usual two, so I didn't have to wait for long. I was the 290th person to be checked in at the F-K station. (By way of contrast, only 188 people voted in the Presidential primary back in February.)
I picked up my optical scan ballot from a very cute young lady and filled it out at one of the dozen or so voting booths. (Another indication that the Election Supervisors were thinking ahead; that's half again as many as they had in 2000). In addition to the Presidential and Congressional races, we had to vote on a couple of amendments to the commonwealth Consititution and a couple of bond issues. I voted yes on all four. Once I completed my ballot, I took it over to the optical scanner and received my "I voted" sticker. A very boring "I voted" sticker, I might add; voters other precincts received much snazzier stickers, featuring the Presidential seal. Man. First, they move my polling place to a location that's not even in the precinct, and then they stick us with crummy generic stickers. It's a conspiracy, I tells ya!
All in all, the whole process took maybe ten minutes. Easy-peasy. I hope the outcome of the election is as satisfying. (And I am cautiously optimistic that it will be.)
