Reporting election returns in NWI is rough business. Got there at 6, because I was told that most of the absentee ballots would be ready. The good news was, Lake County had an outstanding turnout, possibly the largest in years. The bad news? At 6, there was maybe 30 percent of that vote counted, so for 3 hours, I sat around dishing with a competition reporter (I may despise the competition, but I like quite a few of the people) as well as one of my local TV station friends, who's, like, the coolest person ever (plus she thinks I'm funny, something I always get a charge of).

And then the results started coming in, and no sooner would I spend 20 minutes on the phone with the lovely EA who did a fantastic job of plugging in the stats when I'd get the NEXT SET OF NUMBERS handed to me. That happened three different times before we finally stopped at 98 percent returned. (And before you say, "Why didn't you just fax the damn results?" -- no. Having been an EA in the Sports department -- yeah, I know, that's a thought, idn't it? -- it is a thousand times easier to have things read to you than it is reading them, even if I wanted to cry by the fourth set of stats.) But what I want to know? How is it that some precincts didn't turn in the cartridges on which the votes were cast!?!?! When we finally called it a night at 11:30 p.m. (the paper, not the election counters, who were there until the wee hours), there were still eight machines locked up in buildings, the cartridges not turned in to be counted. How does that fucking happen? Seriously. After spending 12 hours devoting your time to manning an election, how do you NOT TURN THE THINGS IN!?!? GAH!

As for the Shrub winning, I'm as stunned and saddened by it as anyone, but plenty of other people have articulated my thoughts for me to, too. I'm just glad that Pete Visclosky was reelected to the House.