Precinct 35 voters exiting the polls around 4 p.m. at Adams Morgan’s Iglesia Festival, 1640 Columbia Rd. NW

Irina Van Dusen

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Emily Richardson, who voted in Maryland earlier today, stands outside the polling place at 19th & Kalorama Rds. NW wearing an elaborate beet costume. She’s campaigning for the Obama-Biden ticket nationally and for the Statehood Green ticket locally, but mostly, she’s campaigning against McCain. Richardson confirms that if McCain wins the election, she may destroy her costume, a delicious leftover from Halloween festivities. “I might just have to ‘beet’ it to death,” Richardsons says.

A commenter on the newhilleast Listserv commends Watkins Elementary for its election day coverage, which included an array of baked goods and the city’s youngest upstart exit pollster:

I ended up staying in line for over an hour and forty-five minutes, which is never fun, but it was wonderful to watch how the school was interacting with the voters.  . . I saw one teacher, take what looked like a first grade class on a little tour of the people standing in line. The teacher asked questions like, why are these people out here? (to vote, answered the kids), Who are they voting for? (the redskins!, said one little boy).

. . . Finally, after I voted, I experienced my first exit poll, from a second grader! A class of students were out doing exit polling of voters. The expertise of this young new exit pollster leads me to believe, that, 1) most people believe this is the most important election of a lifetime 2) according to her, “no one has told me they voted for McCain yet.”

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CP’s Ted Scheinman, who’s been running around trying to document this entire historic election on videotape, also has a great Slate piece out today instructing John McCain how to lose gracefully. Read Scheinman’s tips for McCain’s (knock on wood, salt over shoulder, Obama jersey unwashed for two years) concession speech—informed by the examples of such great losers as Bob Dole, Adlai Stevenson, and Michael Dukakis. And forward them on to John, please.

Ben’s Chili Bowl is an epicenter of District Obama supporters. Nearly every employee wears a button—or twelve. Everyone’s expecting a clear win for Ben’s favorite candidate. But what are they going to do if McCain wins? I spoke to D.C. residents enjoying their election day lunch at Ben’s to find out their worst case scenarios.

Carl Clark, Obama merch hawker. Clark says he’s been selling Obama buttons, which he collects from a flea market on Florida Ave. & 4th St. NW, for about a month. (Designs range from Obama/MLK “Legacy of Hope” to “Obama: First Black President.”) Clark says that if Obama wins, he’ll keep picking up some more designs to sell off before the inauguration. If McCain wins, “well, I guess it’s all over for me,” he says.

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Scenes from this morning’s poll outside Iglesia Festival, 1640 Columbia Rd. NW

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Outside the City Paper’s polling place,  Iglesia Festival, 1640 Columbia Rd., 9:30 a.m. At 10 a.m., Precinct Captain Paul Motsuk said 1,050 people had voted there so far.

Allan Jirikowic

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9 a.m. at the 15th Street Presbyterian Church, 1701 15th St. NW.

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I just stopped by Marie H. Reed, 2200 Champlain St. NW. A friend told me she waited a little over 30 minutes for her boyfriend to cast his vote there.

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* Wonkette live-blogged Barack Obama’s television infomercial last night on “poverty and murder.” All you need to know:

8:22 — Nevermind, the mother wasn’t the fourth Poor in his story. It’s Joe Biden.
8:22 — No — it’s Claire McCaskill.
8:22 — No — It’s Barack Obama. He is the fourth Poor in his own story.
8:23 — No, REALLY, It’s some guy named Mark, Louisville, lost job at factory, unemployment lines, can’t afford shit, THIS IS MOVING SO FAST, he wants to– THE END OBAMA SHOOTS A THREE POINTER.

* Playgirl editor forces Jezebel editor to consider Barack Obama’s penis.

* The New Gay takes 9:30 club patrons to task for dancing, homophobia, tallness.

* John Dickerson for Slate: Why is the McCain camp so happy?

* GWU blog The Colonialist finds something fishy within the new McCain attack ad.

* And in this newspaper:

- The Battle For the Mid-Atlantic: CP chronicles the last legs of the local campaign. Justin Moyer takes McCain; Franklin Schneider takes Obama.

- Which D.C. Pharmacies won’t stock your contraception.

- Loose Lips tells you to write-in for Carol Schwartz. Bring a pencil.

- And in arts: Maura Judkis on Richard Avadon; Aaron Leitko reviews Gang Gang Dance.

Photo of the 9:30 Club by rpongsaj.

* The Washington Post on the search for a Fairfax police officer who went missing in the waters of Pohick Bay on Tuesday. Second Lieutenant Francis J. Stecco “had volunteered to play the role of a “victim” during a training session for a helicopter water rescue, though he was not a member of the dive team.”

* Attention Adobe Photoshop Elements 7: Do not fuck with Mr. T in D.C.

* Frozen Tropics updates you on recent homicide arrests North of Capitol Hill.

* Hookupmaps charts craigslist casual encounters on google maps. Logan Circle is bumpin’!

* And in this newspaper:

- Jason Cherkis on D.C.’s greatest unknown music legend, Mingering Mike. Check out Mike’s special introduction and the making of a love-song collaboration between Jason and Mike.

- Mixtec’s new Mexican-Italian take-out gets the Tim Carman treatment.

- Dave McKenna on why high-school homecoming is for nerds.

- In Loose Lips, at-large council candidate Michael Brown robo-calls the wrong guy.

- Why the death of Tony Hunter’s remains “unofficial.”

Photo by NCinDC.

The American workplace’s storied glass ceiling is in pretty bad shape. Female workers are on the fast track to conquering the upper echelons of all sectors of industry, including the nation’s highest office. But what about that unsung other half of our nation’s workforce: men? In 2008, what workplaces may truly call themselves manly?

In order to find D.C.’s remaining manly strongholds, The Sexist is pleased to announce D.C.’s Manliest Workplace Competition! Beginning next week, The Sexist will run 64 D.C. workplaces in eight industries through a highly unsophisticated algorithm to assess each organization’s manliness. In order to determine manliness, the Sexist will take the top 10 positions in each organization, ascertain which positions are staffed by men, then assign a point value to each male staffer. A man in the highest-ranking position (i.e., president, CEO, publisher) will earn 10 points; one in the 10th-most-powerful spot will receive one point. The manliest workplace—one that employs all men, all the time, in the most powerful and well-paid positions—can score as high as 55 on the Manly Index. The least manly workplace—one that employs no men, none of the time, in any position—will receive a zero.*

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* Miss the debate? Don’t head to the live blogs: Head to the live blog of the live blogs.

* G.W. student blog The Colonialist has a couple photos of Dick Cheney being released from G.W. Hospital. He waves.

* Dear China: Wish we could give you some advice on this whole fledgling democracy thing. Regrets, The United States of America. [via Polymeme]

* Via Talking Points Memo: Ayers, Shmayers; even those people who believe Barack Obama is a terrorist are still voting for him. Says one Obama supporter:

“Well, I don’t know much about this terrorist group Barack used to be in with that Weather guy but I’m sick of paying for health insurance at work and that’s why I’m supporting Barack.”

And in this newspaper:

- Photographer Darrow Montgomery and Senior Writer Jason Cherkis document the end of a Columbia Heights relic and ask: Does anybody care?

- Your Reel Affirmations film fest guide.

- In Cheap Seats, Dave McKenna talks race and Redskins. What’s black and white and reluctant to integrate all over?

- In Loose Lips, Mike DeBonis does Peter Nickles does Alberto Gonzales.

- and The Sexist launches its Manliest Workplace in D.C. tournament!

Photo by Jason Mogavero

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