Election Day

The day has finally arrived. I was glad to vote early but I miss the experience of going in on the day itself. I remember when our school was a polling place. Apparently they do that at some schools in Albuquerque, but we have a lot of voting centers sprinkled around the city in commercial spaces, so it's not quite the same. And I miss the voting machines with the levers. Such a satisfying sound. I used to go into the voting booth with one of my parents - I remember that clearly. I've taken K with us every time. This year, she wanted to help fill in the little circles. I'm sure she would have done a very good job. But I wasn't sure if that was legal so she had to watch. There were a lot of local offices and bond issues on our long, two-sided ballot. So it took awhile.

I'm cautiously optimistic. But I remember how stressful it was 4 years ago and I expect this will be worse tonight. I hope the results come in smoothly and the outcome is clear. The worst thing that can happen is controversy and lack of clarity. That will do damage to our psyche that will be very hard to undo. But I trust that we will all move on tomorrow and get back to life. I hope so.