I voted today. I had heard horror stories about people being in line for over 4 hours, so I went prepared: I had my iPod, GameBoy, a book, a snack and a diet coke. I was prepared to, as Jon Stewart said last night on the Daily Show, “waste a day for democracy.” I even emailed my project lead and told him that I was leaving to vote and that I would hopefully be back by this afternoon, but I wasn’t sure when I’d be available.

And you know what? The entire voting process took 20 minutes. The standing-in-line part took up about 5 of those minutes. I was a little bummed that my polling place wasn’t giving away “I Voted” stickers on the way out, but it was otherwise a mostly pleasant experience. Go figure.

Now hopefully, fingers crossed, prayers said, and all that other stuff, we’ll have a new President in just a few short hours. Here’s hoping.