Time to Vote. Time to Fill.

I'm trying to recall some of the cliches the electronic news media will employ tomorrow morning and early afternoon before the polls actually close.

I know that:

Somewhere it will be raining, which (they say) may hurt the Democrats but help the Republicans.

Somewhere the weather will be fine, which (they say) may help the Democrats but hurt the Republicans.

Somewhere there will be long lines at the polls.

Somewhere turnout will be below projections.

Somewhere turnout will be above projections.

Somewhere the candidate will talk with reporters after casting his/her vote in the company of his/her spouse.

Everywhere the candidate will be optimistic.

Somewhere a naturalized citizen and an 18-year-old high school student will be voting for the first time, though not necessarily in the same place.

Somewhere a candidate who will get maybe 28 percent of the vote will talk about how it will all be worthwhile no matter what the outcome because of all the wonderful people he/she met walking around the neighborhood, the precinct, the town, the county, the city, the state.

And somewhere, at the end of the day, a voting machine will record 187,000 votes in a precinct where there are only 617 registered voters.

I hope that's somewhere and not everywhere.



It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting. ~Tom Stoppard, Jumpers