MD schools are out for election day. I don't remember if they were in NM. I vote in a small school cafeteria, and a LOT of polling places here are in schools. Oh, and there is no real parkinglot at my school, so the traffic is insane. Having classes in session would be a huge mess for both the schools and the polls.

Starbucks is handing out free coffee on November 4th to voters.

Krispy Kreme is giving away free donuts.

Ben & Jerry's is giving away free ice cream at their scoop shops.

There are none of these in my county. We don't even have a Target or a decent craft store here, either.

I had heard somewhere that a lot of schools are closing because many poling places are in schools, and people think lots of adults in a school with kids is a security issue. Or something.

When I was a kid, voting was in my elementary school lobby, and we just didn't go through there that day. Meh.

Schools that were polling places were always closed on election day where I grew up. As a teacher, I was relieved. I do worry about the sheer numbers of strangers in school on a day like that; plus, most schools aren't big enough to accomodate normal classes and polling. I totally get why it would be an enormous PITA for parents, though.

Oh, I totally get the inconvenience factor for parents! Don't want to discount that at all! It's a logistics nightmare no matter what.

They did voting in the gym, so we just didn't have gym class that day....

My school isn't a polling center. Draconian Dictator doesn't seem to care if we vote or not this year. We are still expected to be at the school at 7am and who cares what time we leave.

I came home to discover that Loki had again managed to knock his food dish every which way while completely shredding a newspaper I'd left in there. He's got quite the paper shredding impulse.

Some of my schools were polling places, and none of them closed. A pity, really. I wish more places closed on election day. Some countries do close down non-life-and-death stuff for elections. I'm inclined to agree with Maddow on long polling station lines turning into another poll tax on people who don't have flexible work schedules.

Oooh, I got a robocall that I actually listened to! (I was initially distracted by the fact the rep has the same name phonetically as my dad & so stuck around to hear what the issue was!) It was anti-slots.

I got another that started out all "throw the bastards out" so I hung up before I figured out the cause.