This year, election day falls on a day when my wife has to work, and her schedule makes it difficult to get to the polls, without hitting the busiest times of the day. Early voting is all the rage this year, so she decided to opt for that. Originally her plan was to hit the county center on Monday, but when we realized that we would be only a mile from there after our Saturday morning run, it seemed like a no-brainer to go up there together and get it taken care of.

We arrived at the government center about an hour after they opened and discovered a very long line. We decided that we might as well wait in it, since my wife would probably have to wait in a line no matter when she voted. There was a judge handing out the paperwork we needed to fill out while we waited in line, and at the end of it all it only took about an hour to get to the voting booth. We weren’t pressed for time, so it didn’t really matter to us.

It was a bit weird for me this year, voting early. I’ve always had an election day tradition of doing the polls before work and proudly wearing my “I voted” sticker all day. However, times change, and sometimes its nice to just get it over with. After all, I already knew what my vote selections would be.

One advantage of the line taking an hour to get through, was that it put us in Anoka after noon, which meant that a block away, 10K brewing was open for business. We celebrated our exercising of democracy with a beverage at a great taproom before heading home for the day. Remember to vote everyone! It’s your right, no matter the outcome!