I spent most of today, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., working at the Hudson County Administration Building in New Jersey, dealing with emergency absentee ballot applications and registration problems. It’s part of my job to do this every Election Day, but this was my first time doing it for a presidential election, and I was in awe at the long line of people waiting. Most of these people had first gone to their polling places, only to learn that their names weren’t on the registration books as they should have been. They then had to come to the county building and wait on line, at some points for an hour, to get the problem dealt with. Then I (or another person) would walk them down to a judge, who would hear the problem and make a ruling. Then, if the ballot or registration were approved, the voter would have to go back to the original polling location to cast a ballot.

I was inspired that all these people were going through all of these in order to vote.

Later in the day, I went to my own polling place and was disappointed that there was no wait. It wasn’t a peak voting time, but I’d still been hoping for at least a 10-minute wait or something. Instead there was just one person ahead of me. I’d be hoping to feel like part of a crowd.

I’d been feeling so inspired about voting today, but it was all over in a matter of seconds. It’s too bad I didn’t think to bring a camera with me like other people did.

Still — I’ve done my duty. When I see New Jersey’s popular vote tally on TV tonight, I will know that one of those millions of votes belongs to me.

Yeah — it is pretty inspiring, after all.

I’m sleepy, but I’m too edgy to nap. So now I go to Matt’s place to watch the returns.

All that’s left to do is wait.