Done and Done

Vote #207, St. Helena Catholic Church, Minneapolis.

Melissa and I got in line around 6:45. Waited an hour and 15 to vote. A similar wait, incidentally, to the one I had at a precinct across town in 2004. I ran into a former improv classmate and a college classmate, both of whom it turns out live on our street within two blocks of us.

Plenty of ballots and booths. Choke point was table where registered people checked in. There were only two or three spots for check-in; they could have used at least one or two more teams.

I don't get why other states muck around with old-school machines, complicated ballots, or dubious electronics. Gimme a Scantron (Scantron and Scranton have literally -- literally! -- the same letters in them) any day of the week. It's the best of both worlds: rapid results when you scan it in, but it leaves a verifiable paper trail that's difficult to mess with.

Ultimately, while symbolically exciting, my voting experience was procedurally boring. That's the way I like it. I don't know why other states can't seem to figure out how to run an election, but I'm glad they have around here.