Voting ended two weeks ago for me. I voted on the third or fourth day the Early Voting site was open in my area. It’s actually more convenient for me than my polling place.

See, in Illinois you have to vote at s designated site on Election Day, one determined by your address, which is also what determines your congressional district and many other factors. Mine is about 12 blocks away, across train tracks and a major road. I can walk it in good weather, but when is the weather good in November?

On the other hand, early voting sites are set up by county, and in high population counties, like, say COOK, there are multiple sites. In fact there’s one right next to the library that I walk to several times a week. Big win for Early Vote!

The site was as busy as I’ve ever seen it. The line was as long as it was in 2020 when people had to space out 6 feet apart, only this time we were all queued up one behind the other. (Guess how many people were masked. I didn’t bother outside, but indoors? Yeah. As soon as I was past the table where I picked up my machine card, my mask went on.)

The election staff ran a good line, staging lines so no one got crowded or backed up, and moving people as fast as possible from one stage to the next. It was Comicon/theme park level of expertise. I confess I am easily impressed by logistic successes.

The last day of Early voting (aka yesterday, or “the day before Election Day") the line was wrapped around the block. They had to declare end of line at 5PM when the site closed (everyone in line at 5 got to vote. It took another hour.) And I heard from a co-worker today that the lines at other early voting sites were far longer.

On Election Day itself, early voting was closed, of course. Did people show up there? Yes, they did. Then they came to the library for directions. I can see how Illinois’s system could be confusing to people who’ve never voted before, or never voted here. There are a lot more precinct voting sites than Early Polling Sites.

There’s so much verbiage on the flyer that gets mailed out with Registered Voter IDs. It’s easy to miss the “Your polling place on election day is __________” note with the address of the site. And it is right next to the “Your closest early voting site is _________” notification.

And those get mailed out months ahead of time, so people cut out their card and throw away the flyer.

We’re lucky that the county website has an excellent & easy to use “find your polling place” widget, because tonight I looked up polling places for multiple people who reported to the library to vote here. Most were happy to find out where they should go, that they could register same-day there with 2 ID, 1 showing name and address together.

One person was displeased to learn that Early Voting Sites and Election Day polling places were not the same thing, and questioned my explanation of the process at length. (Very thankful for the nice, clear explanations on the website.)

I don’t know if this individual was a first-time voter (they looked old enough to not be) or new to the state, or simply missed ALL the election leadup, but I gotta say I am impressed by their optimism. Not expecting to encounter any inconvenience or problems when showing up to vote 55 min before polls closed on the last day of a major election cycle is…something.

Postscript: I wrote this one on Election Day before results were in. Welp, the results are in. I hoped for better, but didn’t expect it. That’s because in 1980, I saw how easy it was to convince people to vote for awful things by lying to them in ways that made them feel good. (The only time I was truly surprised was 2020.

I mean, look at my whole first book series. I chose to write about rebuilding a post-collapse world because I’ve been watching my country teeter on the edge of this collapse basically my whole life.

So anyway. I don’t do despair. I don’t have the energy to generate fiery rage or icy fear. My feelings regarding the state of the world are as solid and immovable as bedrock, yet also as fluid and boundless as the ocean.

There will be a whole Thinks and Feels post soon.

Until later!

Or! OR! if you like your local library, you could request a purchase. Free for you, sale for me, everyone wins.

Most libraries need the following info for ordering print books:

• Title: Relics From A Traveling Show

• Author: K. M. Herkes

• ISBN: 9781945745201 (paperback)

  Every library system does things a little differently, but most want their collections to serve their communities, so most of them are very responsive to patron requests.

If you like novels more than short stories, I recommend my series The Rollover Files for hopepunk tales of about an alternate world where moms with midlife crisis superpowers have been saving the world and making the military nervous since 1943.

I also have a completed, quirky slow-burn science fiction thriller duology with a romance chaser: The Stories Of The Restoration.

All my titles are available from Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Hoopla, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, Overdrive and many other fine booksellers.

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