On Tuesday night, Ray and I decided to exercise our civic duty and went to vote.  Here in Texas, we have early voting, and in our county (which is, I’ve learned, purple on the political map — not as red as some would like it to be, and not as blue either) all early voting is done on electronic voting machines.

I’ve read the stories about the voting machines and the errors and whatnot, but the experience seemed to be error free.  This shouldn’t be confused with “it was easy.”  No, with only four voting machines, we waited in line for nearly 10 minutes, and by the time we left, the line extended out of the room where voting was being held, around the corner, and was starting to snake down the hall.

I had a whiplash moment when a woman in front of us asked if the print could be made larger because she has difficulty seeing.  “No,” said the perky, helpful volunteer, “but we have a magnifying sheet you can use.”  I don’t know whether the woman was able to finally read for herself because my turn came next and my back was to her, but while I was standing there, the volunteer seemed to be reading the screen to her.

Seriously–at however many thousand dollars a pop, you’d think that one of the things they could work into the voting machines is the ability to make the font larger and, I dunno, text to speech.  Where’s the ADA when you need them?

I grow weary of this political campaign and am desperate for it to end.  Yesterday, Sarah Palin went after Obama for being associates with Rashid Khalidi, a professor at Columbia who, according to CNN, is “a harsh critic of U.S. foreign policy toward Israel and has accused the country of ‘occupying’ Palestinian territories.”  Apparently CNN is so afraid of the neocons that they have to put “occupying” in quotes because there’s no consensus on this point?  Give me a break.

By the way, in case anyone missed it, al-Qaeda is endorsing McCain.

I’m ready for it to be over, one way or the other.  I know which way I’d prefer (in case it’s not obvious), but it’s been four years of ridiculousness on the campaign trail, and four years of ridiculousness in the White House.  Either way, it’s going to be a 50% reduction in the ridiculous factor.

Are you ready?  I know I am.