A nice-weather-day sandwiched between chill temperatures, wind and rain. We had our hour-and-a-half ravine walk with our little dogs, then took them along with us, in their over-the-shoulder carry-bags into our local advance polling station for the 2011 general election.

We weren't certain whether we'd find crowds at the elementary school gymnasium, ready to vote their political choice, or a paucity of people. Fortunately, the big rush to vote had dissipated by the time we arrived. The scrutineers informed us that the crowds of people who formed a long, impatient line of would-be voters for hours after noon opening had finally cleared out. Nice timing on our part, we thought.

And then we could understand why people had been impatient, for a new impedance to voting had been added (in the sense of consuming more time, making for more inefficiency in the process) for this year's vote. Not only must voters bring along with them the voter's registration card they had received in the mail, pre-vote, validating their registration and clarifying the process, along with an additional personal piece of identification (driver's license, utility bills, etc.), they must also patiently stand by while a polling station clerk painstakingly writes down by hand what already exists on the list held by the other clerk; the name and address of the individual. Once the writing process has been concluded, the voter is asked to sign their name alongside the hand-written entries of the clerk.

And then, the carefully folded ballot is proffered to the voter, whereupon he/she may take him/herself to the semi-seclusion of the booth standing hard by, to cast their vote. That additional time-consuming process, along with the fact that there was only one table with three clerks (temporary workers, usually older people who are party faithful and who have been nominated by the party they support on the basis of their work on behalf of the party), and one polling booth for the entire community being served.

The slow and clumsy inefficiency of the workers failed to impress. But the women's eyes did light up at the sight of our little toy poodle nestled in his carrying bag, whereupon one of them asked brightly if that might be the little dog who had bitten off the end of the nose of a greeter at Home Depot the week previously. Ouch.