voted, CHECK

I have a yard full of candidate signs, some of which I will give to my Canadian friends as souvenirs.
Here in this tiny little hamlet, you vote at the fire hall, about a mile from the purple house, maybe more. Walk across the river, by the post office, past the community hall, turn left, go by the playground, pasture, woods, arrive at the fire hall, try to figure out how to use the lever machines (our old little town gave you a printed slip of paper and a pencil to vote, then you put it into the box and republicans either later tore it up or erased your choices and checked theirs, whichever suited them) so you finally figure out how to flick all the levers, then out of the fire hall, go home a different way, past more woods and pasture, along the river, up the hill to the post office, get a nice letter and coupons from mama bear back across the river and into the purple house again. There were roving bands of republicans riding around with shotguns and other younger republicans going around with baseball bats, the deal being you take their five bucks and vote republican or they break your arms and legs, SLOWLY. I offered to vote 3 times for 15 bucks and received smiles all around, a bonus six pack of beer and.......
OK, none of that last bit is true. Only the part about the pickups, but I guess that it is hunting season.....
We are lucky if we live in a place where we can vote privately, and it is correctly counted.