I got to my polling station around 4:45 p.m., made my way through the phalanx of signs and candidates, and got in to find the place was pretty busy. I asked the poll deputy how many had voted since 7:00 a.m. He reported 813. I asked if that was a lot, and he shrugged. “It’s been steady.”

The ballot in my precinct was both sides of two pages, including judges up for retention, and Florida’s penchant for amending the state constitution.

I made my selections, hesitating over only one choice, and then took the plunge.

The one thing on the ballot I didn’t expect to see was a “non-binding” measure to tell the federal government to pass a balanced-budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I filled in the NO bubble rather vehemently, wishing there was room to insert a terse adjective. I don’t hold with cluttering up the ballot with non-binding crap, especially one from the Tea Party that’s meant to send a message. You want a balanced budget, stop spending money on unfunded wars and tax cuts for Rush Limbaugh.

I’ll be back later on with my FWIW on the results. At least I know that one of the votes that they’re counting is mine.