We got in line to vote at our precinct about ten minutes before the polls opened at 6:00 a.m. There were fifty to seventy people in line when they opened the doors. My voting precinct is a mixture of small town and rural addresses. There were two older men in line wearing NRA propaganda tee shirts.

It was interesting to observe the demeanor of voters as they snaked through the line to get their ballot. In past presidential elections there has been a much more jovial atmosphere. Given the demographic present this morning I was left to wonder if this was the grim resignation of the losing side.

I, on the other hand, kept a smile on my face throughout my voting experience. I voted a straight Democratic ballot, then I turned to the Governor race. I thought about that blank for a long minute. Then I voted for Jay Nixon because his opponent, Dave Spence (r) would be several orders of magnitude worse. But I had to think about it.

An hour later I drove by the precinct and realized that I had indeed made the correct decision to not leave that race blank. In that short period Dave Spence (r) campaign elves deposited yard signs at the parking lot entrances to the polling place:

A sure sign you’re losing when you invest more man hours in sign placement on election day than you do in GOTV the week leading up to it.

While legal (In Missouri the electioneering restriction is twenty-five feet from the front entrance of a polling place) this is the first time in over twenty years of voting here I’ve ever witnessed a campaign do this in my county. That’s the problem with a one size fits all approach to campaigning. Yeah, that’ll go over well with people showing up to vote in this county. But, of course, the usual republican pearl clutchers won’t complain because *IOKIYAR. If it was a Democratic Party candidate it would be an entirely different story.

And, at an intersection, just a short distance down the street from the polling place:

A lonely metaphor for the entire campaign.

* it’s okay if you’re a republican