Having been working at the polling station at Escondido's Pioneer Elementary School from 5:30 a.m. until we left to turn in our ballots at 9:30 p.m., I can attest that yesterday was certainly an Election Day. On the other hand, the exhaustion and soreness this morning all point to a highly successful Mardi Gras celebration.

Mind-numbing paper counts and the stickers, stickers, stickers attitude lead to morning-after effects very similar to the more traditional Mardi Gras activities.

The worst part of the day was putting this news junkie into a news blackout zone for most of Super Tuesday. The TV was turned off. There were no publications around that might politicize the environment. The occasional news update message to the Blackberry served as more of a tease than to satisfy any actual cravings for good, hard news, and small doses of KPBS coverage over the car radio while running errands on my breaks were all I had to keep from going into complete withdrawal. 

From my standpoint, Touchscreen Inspector for a precinct that only had one electronic ballot cast, the election went smooth.

While voter rosters were far from perfect, the voters themselves were generally excited to be there and positive about the experience.  I was far from the only person there sporting the Mardi Gras beads, and witnessed the utter joy on a recently naturalized man's face (he brought his certificate with him) when we gave him his first American ballot to vote.

Then the joy moved to my face when I dropped off my assigned touchscreen with the Registrar of Voters staff and was able to start following the returns. The news junkie was getting his fix. The give and take of both the Republican and Democratic primary races were exciting, and I'll admit some glee at seeing there were no clear winners and the races and debates will continue until sometime closer to the summer conventions.

Among the California initiatives, I was particularly interested in the results of Proposition 93, a measure I voted against.  I have mixed feelings about term limits.  I would prefer a world where voters had absolute discretion to elect qualified candidates, but am willing to sacrifice some of those principles to limit the power that incumbents seem to have in running for perpetual re-election. 

Fresh ideas need room to grow, and sometimes old growth needs to be pared, or at least moved someplace new so it can become fresh again.  Beyond that, the blatant self-serving nature of this proposition in extending the careers of some of the supporting politicians was just too much to swallow, and I was glad to see the majority of the electorate seems to be agreeing with me.

-Citizen Voices blogger Chuck Hartley is an attorney who lives in Escondido.