a (sort of) campaign report

I just voted -- which makes me a wonderful citizen, but you already knew that -- and it was interesting to note that my little polling place was experiencing unusally strong turnout. The clerks told me 250 or so voters had already passed through, which is very high for this early in a primary day. At my polling station, they hand you a ticket that identifies you as a Republican or a Democrat so the clerk handling the machines will know which electronic ballot to turn on as you enter the booth. The clerk then stacks the tickets on the table where you sign in, and it was interesting (there's that word again) to note that there were A LOT more Democratic tickets than GOP ones. Not sure what that means, considering Pee-A's system is not a winner-take-all, straight popular vote, but rather one in which a candidate must win a given congressional district, all of which are divided proportionally. However, the pledged delegates to the convention are NOT evenly distributed, which means it's more likely more delegates will come from Democratic strongholds like Pittsburgh and Philly. (Got that?) Anyway, with several hours to go until the polls close, I'm going out on a limb to predict John McCain will win today on the Republican side. Now THAT's punditry.