It's not that I don't understand that the worker bees have to work and that sometimes it requires them to inconvenience the rest of the world. It's just that I'm the only (company-affiliated) person in the office today, by dint of tremendous effort I have everything ready for my trip out of town tomorrow, and I'm feeling friendly.

I'd rather be reading some of the massive backlog of my friends' blogs than working, but I don't really feel comfortable surfing around with them wandering in and out of my office, chatting with me about light switches and suchlike.

Actually, if they wander in here one more time, I'm going to shut the door. I don't often take chunks of time in a workday to goof off but that's where my mood is today and they're harshing my vibe.

And I'm compulsively checking the news sites, because that's what I do. CNN, the first headline I see this morning.

Glitches reported in early voting Well, duh.

Also: Poll: Americans favor Democrats on the issues. Duh some more. Americans always favor the Democrats on issues if you strip off the partisan language (from both sides) and don't identify "issues" with any Party buzzwords. And that goes far beyond war.

Obviously I want sweeping Democrat victories. Not because I'm amazingly thrilled with all of the candidates running but because if we can at least shift the Congressional majority to the center (the current Democrat leadership could not be described as "Left" or "liberal"), then maybe those of us who are actually liberal (they call themselves "progressives" these days, but I disapprove) can make headway against the appeasers.

Of course, voting problems, even corruption (both great and small, have been a part of the USofA political landscape for centuries, but I'm more than a little concerned about all of those electronic voting machines.

Me, I voted "absentee" which means I wrote my vote on paper and mailed it in. I can't force them to receive it, I can't make them count it, and I can't make them read it accurately or fairly, but I did as much as I could do, short of hand-delivering the ballot (and I'm not sure they'd accept personal deliveries).

In skimming the early morning sites, I've read at least one account of a precinct where you have to hand your supposedly confidential ballot to someone and wait for them to scan it before your vote can be counted. Yes, your neighbor is sitting there, reading your "private" vote.

I've read an account of someone being forced to declare a party affiliation, out loud for the crowd, before they could get their ballot.

And, of course, Missouri's problem.

It's all very nerve-wracking in some ways. In other ways, I'd rather not get the results for a few days. Because that would mean we'd all voted on paper and those votes had been counted by human beings who were being watched by other human beings. That's not a perfect system, but it's better than untraceable electrons.