Vote!

I voted this morning about 10:15. The polling place was the elementary school my daughter used to attend, where about 8 precincts were voting. Usually when I go in to vote, it's pretty quiet; the poll workers are sitting around chatting. Today, they were all busy. I had to wait for one person ahead of me to sign in at my precinct and get my ballot, then I had to wait behind about 10 people for a booth to fill out my ballot. We use optical scan ballots (fill in the bubble), so if I wasn't concerned about secrecy and had had a pen on me, I could have just stood there and voted. Unfortunately, I didn't have a pen, and couldn't find a spare one, so I waited in line.

The whole process took me about 15 minutes. There were a lot more people than usual, even with about 2/3rds of King County voters using absentee ballots. King County (Seattle) and Pierce County (Tacoma) are the only counties in Washington not voting entirely by mail, and next year, King County will move to vote by mail. It is more convenient, but I'll miss going to my polling place and casting my vote on election day.

So, go vote: it's fun!