I'm rarely ahead of the pack on fashion trends, but I'm the first person I know to have donned the coveted "I Voted' sticker this election season. That's because on Friday, I decided to vote via absentee ballot.

I did this partially because I wanted to avoid the inevitable long lines at my neighborhood polling place -- which may have turned upside down my carefully-choreographed day of pick-ups and drop-offs (aka house of cards) -- but also because now that you don't need a good excuse to vote early, I wanted to check out the process and see how it went.

There's free 15-minute parking on Kilbourn Avenue between Market and Broadway, which meant I could slip quickly into the Market Street lobby of the Zeidler Municipal Building, get my ballot and vote in the "express" voting area. As a regular voter, I'm pretty much always registered.

There were perhaps a dozen people there to vote and a small staff that distributed the forms and the ballots, checked voter names against a master list and then witnessed the sealed ballots before handing over the "I Voted" sticker.

Even with my unfamiliarity with the system, the entire process -- from pulling into the parking spot to pulling out -- took perhaps seven minutes. Now, that's efficiency! And because it wasn't even the middle of October yet, I felt a little like I was getting a sneak peek at the ballot most everyone else -- at least in my ward -- will see come Tuesday, Nov. 4.

Some in the office here believed that absentee ballots aren't automatically counted and are held only as tie-breakers or something, but the city's Election Commission Web site notes, "the absentee ballot is counted as if the voter had cast the ballot in person."

The municipal clerk needs to verify that the ballots are properly handled and "accept" them, but that doesn't seem all that much different from regular ballots which, as we know, are challenged if improperly filled out, have dangling or pregnant chads or if voters didn't choose the candidate supported by the machine manufacturers. (Just making sure you're paying attention!)

All elections are important, but presidential ones even more so. So, be sure to vote. If you won't be able to do it on Election Day, head Downtown and get it done early.

Complete voting information is here.