Well, I voted for the first time in an actual polling place (all my prior election experiences had been via absentee ballot)! My precinct polling place was in a bingo hall, and I went before work this morning. No line, no hassle, and only a couple of loafers outside for a few local Republican candidates (they were very polite and friendly and not at all intrusive).

The ballots here were easy to comprehend: just like the old Scan-Tron SAT's. You filled out the little rectangle right next to the name of the candidate you wanted: it was really obvious which rectangle went with whom (no butterfly ballots here!). When you were done, you fed your ballot into a machine with a screen, which popped up an American flag and a message that your vote had been counted. I was in and out in less than 10 minutes.

Most people in my office were wearing "I made a difference: so can you. VOTE!" stickers when I came in this morning (our Cincinnati version of the "I VOTED" sticker), even the folks who weren't rabid one way or the other. Many also were wearing Obama stickers, although one vocal pro-Hillary fellow had a huge "CLINTON" poster on his door.

Three things of note:

1) Early-voting hit record highs here in Cincinnati. I believe the number I heard on the radio this morning was 20,000.

2) There is a very important public school tax levy on the ballot in Cincinnati today. The previous levy has expired, and the last balloted levy proposal (9+ mills) was voted down. The current levy (7+ mills) is seen as extremely important (without it, well, the schools will probably shut down), so this may motivate people to the polls. There's also a mill levy for the local zoo.

3) For some reason, the order of Presidential candidates on the ballot was Obama, Clinton, Edwards, Kucinich. This isn't alphabetical by first name or last name. I'm not sure if these are randomized or not or how they decide whose name comes first.

We'll see what happens tonight!

Thanks for the report, I assume ballot order was by random selection or some kind of lotto.

Anyone know whether the order of the names was uniform across the state? The only fair way to do it is to rotate by precinct. We blogged about this around the New Hampshire primary.

Thanks for the update!

50 miles north,on the I 70 line,we voted on Diebold machines.

You could ask for paper if you wanted them,it was not suggested.The reason I know,it was my first year not to work the Polls in 8 years,so I asked.

Clinton was in the middle of mine too.I assume the machines will be replaced by the next election.They are a piece of junk.

Paper receipts stick, roll up and there is usually a couple of machines not working at all.