Fargo, North Dakota.

Election day is coming soon, and since we don’t always know whether we will be travelling or in our desert home when election day hits, we opt for absentee ballots. They arrived this week and it took me only a few moments to mismark my ballot. I needed a new one. Fortunately, screwing up a ballot is not a reason to become disenfranchised. However, it took a trip to the Cass County Courthouse to turn in my spoiled ballot and obtain a new one.

They have a small area for voting in the courthouse, so I took my new ballot, carefully marked it, placed it in the security envelope, and dropped it in the ballot box by the main entrance. On the way out, I looked back at the building that is the seat of our county government and snapped a cellphone picture. The building, built in 1906, is the third courthouse and it looks to be in great condition considering it’s 110 years old.

About the photo: As usual, this photo was captured with a Samsung S7, edited on an iPad. When I uploaded it to my computer, however, I decided one bit of further editing was required to make it a better photo. Along the parkway, several power lines traverse the front of the building. Lightroom’s spot removal tool made quick work of removing the most noticeable lines. So I bent the rule a bit… the rule that says the photo should be captured and edited on a mobile device.

John Steiner