I’ve voted in four Presidential elections now. The first of those — 1996 — occurred when I was in college, and I cast my vote via absentee ballot. I’ve voted in the three since then in the same polling place in Greenpoint, which is where I arrived today at a little before 8 am.

Normally, the line for each district is fairly short, especially in the early hours of the day. Five people before you, maybe seven: you check in, you step inside the booth, you make your choice. Or, to get all Tanner 88: you exercise your right to vote.

Today was a little different. The line for the information desk — i.e. where you find out what your district is based on your address — trailed up the stairs leading down to where you actually vote. I proceeded to the 99th District table to check in; the line seemed longer than normal, but not by much. Okay, I thought.

And then I checked in, and realized that the line to actually vote was a completely different one, and that it was three or four times the size of the check-in line. Multiply that by the five or six districts using the same polling place — though the 99th was particularly crowded, due to one of the two machines allocated to it being down — and you might get a sense of just how packed things were.

Once I’d cast my ballot and headed back up the steps to Leonard Street, thirty-odd minutes after arriving, one thing stood out: it had gotten even more crowded. As someone who occasionally vents his frustration over low voter turnouts, it made for an encouraging start to the day.