huh?

OK - I realize that the West Coast states (California, Washington, and Oregon) tend to give their electoral votes to the Democratic candidate, but how would you feel if 0% of the precincts in your state had tallied the votes and the media was already calling your state a particular way? But don't you think the citizens of those states could be given the courtesy of having their votes actually counted before the presidential race is called?

and the returns roll in!

I might have had it up to here with both candidates and their campaigns, but I love watching the returns roll in. I probably posted about this last election too, but I am so addicted to watching states turn blue and red. I may have reached an all-time low (or high depending on how you look at it). In addition to watching the live broadcast on my one and only TV station (NBC), I'm tracking results on three online sites: Google, Fox, and CNN.

The biggest difference between the three: NBC calls states WAY before any of the other sources.

And with that, I'm going back to track results.

did you see my "proud to vote" sticker?

Today was the first time I voted in person rather than through absentee ballot. For my pains, I received a lovely sticker with an American flag in the background and the words "proud to vote." It's so special that I decided to wear it while I worked at the reference desk tonight. I thought it would be nice to show that I'd done my civic duty and canceled out someone else's vote.

While at the reference desk, I had a couple extra tabs open in Firefox: one with the Virginia state election returns and one with the South Dakota state election returns. I'm quasi-obsessed with tracking election returns. I have some strange fascination with seeing how the numbers fluctuate as more precincts turn in their results.

Actually, I'm a little bummed that I don't have the Internet or TV at home because it means that as soon as I head home for the night, I'll have no news until I get back to work tomorrow morning. Sad. How on earth am I supposed to obsess properly about how particular candidates, amendments, ballot initiatives, and referendums are doing if I can't click the refresh button every 5 minutes?