I just went and voted! I had to wait in line for a few minutes to get a free booth at my Outer Sunset polling place, the first time I’ve had to wait to vote since moving out here in 2004. Presumably, you’ve voted too, so what are you going to do now? As previously noted, the Department of Elections won’t start releasing results until 8:45 tonight, so you’ve got some time.
You can get a 50 cent drink: via 7×7, Straight Up Vote has partnered with a whole slew of local bars including the Lookout, Tonic, Velvet Cantina. All you do is bring your voting strip (that strip of paper they gave you with your ballot) to any participating bar and you get a 50 cent drink. Here’s a map so you can find the bar nearest you.
Then there are the election parties! You can find lists of who’s getting down where at BeyondChron, SF FYI, and the Bay Area Reporter. Show up at any of these shindigs to celebrate or commiserate with your favorite candidates or campaigns. Assuming you have favorites.
You can always start following the national races: the Chron reports that polling places in Indiana and Kentucky will be closing at 3 PT. They have a good list of what races you should care about and why.
After 8:45, you can follow results online at your favorite news orgs, or go straight to the source: here’s the here’s the CA state results page, and here’s the one for SF’s results. You can also watch live coverage on SFGTV at cable channel 26.
You can let everyone else “do the work for you”: Slate’s Jack Shafer, who calls election-night coverage “the dullest of the journalistic genres,” suggests you “keep a laptop or smartphone by your side to snatch breaking news. Consult your Facebook and Tweeter feeds and let the people you follow do your dirty work for you. If there’s something worth watching in the TV coverage, they’ll let you know. In the meantime, view something from your DVR or Netflix queues. Or read a book.”
How are you planning on spending your election night?
