Election day observations

The line was long to vote this morning. Took me about an hour. But it's not like we weren't warned. So, naturally, people struck up conversations with their neighbors while waiting. The guy in front of me offered this media criticism: The media are always putting a negative spin on a positive thing. Voting is a positive, yet the stories we've heard leading up to the election today have all been "hurry up and vote," "be prepared for long lines," "long ballot." He wondered why we haven't seen stories emphasizing that despite the lines, the process is going smoothly. He didn't know I worked for a newspaper. The guy behind me wondered why places like Six Flags and DisneyWorld can process thousands of people through rides smoothly and relatively quickly but that voting can take an hour. So I suggested that maybe the election commission should adopt the themepark reservation system. You go online to the election commission and reserve your spot in line to vote. Voters with a good voting record (you have faithfully voted in every election over the past two years) would get priority treatment. It would encourage voting and maybe cut down on lines. The other way to cut the wait: Get younger poll workers. There wasn't a soul under 75 at my poll station, and they were slooooooooooow. I sort of glared at the new Diebold machines when I first saw them because I'm well aware of all the problems associated with those machines. There are some serious security flaws that haven't been fully investigated. But once I started voting, I was completely wowed by the technology. Voting was cool!