Cyanide and Happiness takes on the election: [link]

I have to share this FB status from my little brother:

Just to put the 538 projection in terms everybody can understand, Mitt Romney now has the same chance of winning the election as getting a critical hit (x2 damage) with a longsword in dnd 3.5, assuming that Barack Obama is not undead and immune from critical hits.

I LOVE MY FAMILY SO MUCH

Everyone's seen the snappy Joker cosplay going around, yeah? Maybe this guy doesn't have all those scenes to act out, etc, but this is one hell of a Joker: [link]

I did not get asked for ID, so yay.

Lots of people having trouble in Chicago it looks like because they redrew the wards so people's polling places changed and the Board of Elections website is down.

A CNN editorial: America's voting system is a disgrace

When the polls close in most other democracies, the results are known almost instantly. Ballots are usually counted accurately and rapidly, and nobody disputes the result. Complaints of voter fraud are rare; complaints of voter suppression are rarer still.

...

But here's what doesn't happen in other democracies:

Politicians of one party do not set voting schedules to favor their side and harm the other. Politicians do not move around voting places to gain advantages for themselves or to disadvantage their opponents. In fact, in almost no other country do politicians have any say in the administration of elections at all.

...

The United States is an exceptional nation, but it is not always exceptional for good. The American voting system too is an exception: It is the most error-prone, the most susceptible to fraud, the most vulnerable to unfairness and one of the least technologically sophisticated on earth. After the 2000 fiasco, Americans resolved to do better. Isn't it past time to make good on that resolution?

I am so glad I got there early enough that they hadn't gotten a backlog yet, because I know there will be one. They divided the voting into two precincts and at least for me had a very helpful college age kid sending you to the wrong one, plus the check in process was taking about 5 minutes a person because the people manning the desk didn't really seem to get the process.

Longer lines here than usual, too.

I was at a Bare Naked Ladies concert in DC in December 2000 on a Canadian federal election day. They interrupted the concert to announce the results and make snarky remarks about the (still ongoing) US shambles.

No line here, but my precinct rarely has one. All booths full and a steady stream of people in/out the whole time I was there. Also, tons of parents bringing their kids, which was always such an exciting and momentous and also boring thing for me as a small person.

I appear to be choosing my City Treasurer based on the candidates' favorite books. Masters of Rome vs the Bible.