HometownSource Blogs

Election day. An exciting day, yet for a reporter, a rather long and tiring one too. But luckily, I’m running on pure anxiety.

But that’s not what this is about (as I patiently sit waiting to hear the results for local and state races before calling both the winners and losers). No, this is about how awesome it is that Minnesotans (and US citizens all around) really got out this year and rocked the vote.

According to an article posted on the Star Tribune’s Web site tonight, around 8:30 p.m., Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie was expecting the state to come in with more than 3 million of the state’s 3.8 million eligible voters casting a ballot.

Personally, I think this just rocks, and thought I would share my own experience with voting.

The last presidential election was the first time I was old enough to vote. For me, it was never a question whether I would or not. I figure, if you bypass your right to vote, you also bypass your vote to complain about the outcome.

However, even though I went to vote around 9 a.m., and people were there, it was nothing like this time around. I went around the same time again, but definitely stood on line for 20 minutes more. And when the husband went, which was around 8 a.m., he said he stood on line for almost 45 minutes.

Granted, I’ve heard complaints throughout the day about polling problems, not really in  Minnesota, but for sure across the county, but I think it actually speaks great things that so many people were voting (but we do need to start thinking of ways to make the process run a little smoother in the future).

But I’m wondering what others thought of voting today. Was it faster or slower than in the past? Did everything go smoothly? Things get hectic? How do you think Minnesota could make voting run more effectively?