I just finished voting in Fairfax, Virginia. I live in a pretty diverse area and was interested in seeing if there were any generalities that I could pass along.

Here they are (from my hour in line – 0800 to 0900):

1. Republican presence of workers was at least as numerous as Democrats… although the D’s had a small party pavilion where they handed out literature. The R’s had a small table. The school had a bake sale pavilion selling breakfast breads… which were excellent.

2. The voting lines were much (say twice) longer than I had seen them before. Particularly those with names from A to G.

3. Folks in the voting line were not wearing any party affiliation buttons or clothing.

4. The only way that one could “guess” at someones vote was the Example Ballot (green for D and blue for R) that they were carrying.

5. There were very few people carrying Example Ballots… unless they had them in their pockets.

6. Most of the D’s Example ballots were carried by middle aged white women wearing bright colors (like a leopard print coat).

7. Military-looking folks had R Example Ballots.

8. Most of the Asians I saw were carrying R Example Ballots.

9. There were both an R and D Poll Watcher at each check-in station. In the past couple elections, only Democrats had Watchers.

10. At my station, D Poll Watcher had a list of about 6 pages and the R Poll Watcher had a list of 2 pages.

11. All the D Poll Watchers were black women and all the R poll watchers were white men.

12. In VA you could choose to vote with either paper ballot (fill in the oval type) or electronic. There was nobody voting electronic while I was there.

13. Many people stopped to say hello to the Republican worker once exiting the voting room.

14. There was only one guy in the long line whom I felt I may might not be able to take in a fight… and he was clearly a Marine.