Whew!

Glad that's over! I refer, of course, to the recent election. At last! Our long national nightmare (the protracted campaign) has ended. So, no matter if your party won or lost, as least we can all draw together as a nation, and look forward to almost three blessed years of no presidential campaigning.
I personally was really hoping up until the end that my boy Bob Barr would pull it out, but alas, no. Next time!
But anyway, on to my actual subject. Voting here in Alaska was an interesting event in a lot of ways. And then of course extremely mundane in others.
First, thanks to the news media being completely out of control, in past years they were calling the election sometimes by noon east coast time. So we were assuming that CNN would have decided for us who the next president would be before we here in Alaska (4 hours behind east coast time) were even awake. But that didn't happen. Possibly a more alert person knows why they were restraining themselves this year, but it was a welcome change. It was noontime Alaska time before they started calling it. So it was different on a national scale, but not so much for me personally.
Second, they give you an "I Voted" sticker, which is quite pretty. We saved ours for the scrapbook :) . We never got stickers in Pennsylvania.
Third, the method of voting, which I am aware is quite different everywhere you go. We just filled in dots on paper ballots with #2 pencils. This was a little primitive, but pretty foolproof. We always used to laugh about the old ballot machines in Pa, which were clunky old mechanical ones. I have a sneaking fondness for them, though, and seriously considered buying one when they (PA state) got rid of them (the voting machines) to usher in the new touchscreen voting machines. Art talked me down from this purchase plan, however, which was probably a good thing. It would have been absolute hell to move, I can tell you that much.
Also, the big voting center is in the basement of the building where Art works, and they were packed with people voting early for a few weeks before the election. Alaska is one of the states that allows early voting at a few select locations for quite a while before the actual election day. I guess this makes sense - a lot of people live in the rural villages and don't come to town too often, so it makes sense that they vote when they can. (I could be wrong about this - Alaskans may just like to get it over with and out of the way.) I gather there are a few other states that allow this as well, but it was news to me.
Other than that though, it was any old election day. TV and radio pundits making earnest pronouncements, people at work going on about their side and speculating about how if the other side won the entire country was going straight to hell. Then when you actually go to vote, you stand in line, then there's the search for your name by the bored voting station volunteers, the few minutes of actual voting, and then the brief rush of virtuous pride when you have done your civic duty. And then there's the sticker.