christmas morning

Forget Christmas, Election Day morning is the morning I wake up early, filled with anticipation (I'm Jewish, but you get the point).

Sure, I'm a little worried that all I'm going to get this year are socks -- incompetent, ineffective, ethically-challenged socks that don't share my values -- but I still manage to get a giddy about the possibility that this time around I'm going to get that "present" that I have been waiting for all year.

I'll be one of the first people at the polls and I'll wear my "I Voted" sticker with geek pride.

(Today I get to do a presentation at work about social media and politics, so I get to be a little geekier than usual. I updated the presentation I did last month and wrote about here.)

The morning after? That's more like New Year's Day -- complete with hangover. That's particularly the case if your candidates have not emerged as the victors. In 2004, it took all the energy I had to open my front door the next morning because I knew that I would be faced with a glaring -- and unwelcome -- headline when I looked down at the Post on my doorstep.

But let's be hopeful. Go vote. And bring a friend. And if you have a kid, bring them too.

(Kids whose parents vote are more likely to vote themselves when they are old enough.)

And if you're worried about your vote, or someone else's vote, not being counted, check out some of the amazing things that are happening this year to hold election officials accountable, compiled by David Cohn at NewAssignment.net.