Arriving early may have been good because when I went to vote this morning, at about 7:15, there was a line, but not like ones I've seen in the past.

Holy inefficiency Batman! That's what I think every time I vote and I see two people doing the same task and three others seated at the table doing virtually nothing. Then, there are the two others -- one handing out "I Voted" stickers and another wandering as if lost -- doing, again, apparently nothing useful.

Anyway, the dozen or so people in line got in and out in about 10 minutes despite this frustrating scene, which was made even more painful by the fact that the actual act of voting -- which in my neighborhood meant making a maximum of two pencil lines (presidential candidate and county supervisor candidate) -- took mere seconds.

When I arrived on the East Side, I was reminded that there's a hard-fought aldermanic race going on here, too. Two of the candidates in that battle for Mike D'Amato's seat have some faithful supporters holding signs at major intersections.

Note that WUWM said the temperature out there was 3 degrees and my car said it was 8. Either way, that's way too cold to stand outside for long periods and allowing people to do that in your name seems to me to cast doubt on any candidate's good sense and compassion.

MSOE's pancake politics: In honor of the primary, Milwaukee School of Engineering hosts a pancake "breakfast" for its students at 9:30 p.m.

"We anticipate hundreds of students to join us for this free pancake election-night breakfast," says Rick Gagliano of the school's student activities office.

"Students can choose blue (berry), red (strawberry) or independent (maple). We will track the number of pancakes eaten and see if there is any correlation with how the students voted and the color of their pancakes."

The event takes place in the Campus Center Building on the Downtown campus.