Late Update

Though after 5 p.m. things were picking up he two words from most poll workers were, "hot" and "slow".

• Ald. Jennifer Florida (15th) was at the Fanning Middle School polling place talking to voters. One of the volunteers gathering signatures to start a recall against Florida said she was focusing on people who had signed the petition. Florida was passing out her latest newsletter to voters and was involved in a discussion about the zoning issues with two voters who seemed less than pleased with her support for the McDonald's project on South Grand.

• Derio's parents were out working the poll at St. Ambrose School on the Hill. They were joined by a lone, brave Jeff Smith volunteer (this being Derio's home-turf after-all).

• I heard complaints that things were moving slowly with the touch-screen machines.

• Up in the 18th Ward, turnout was light at the Washington Montessori polling place on N. Euclid. Karla May and El-Amin had a half-dozen volunteers a piece working the poll. 18th ward power-broker John Curtis said that the kind of confusion that exists, shouldn't be happening. The candidates should have sat down and talked things out rather than fight it out at the polls. Voters were having to use some creative logic ("pretzel logic" as the American's Political Eye called it) to determine who they were voting for.

No one seemed to want to take any odds on the races, but everyone seemed surprised by the low turnout.