Democracy, or something reasonably representing it, in action

In an age-old tradition that speaks to the most cherished of this country's democratic traditions, thousands of Reston residents, including these layabouts loitering at Lake Anne Village Center, lined up before dawn to vote in a preference poll to tell a member of the county board of supervisors which people to appoint to a community center board funded by a small tax district. Oh, wait -- that's already happened. Apparently there's been a bit of a fuss about a presidential election or something this fall, too. We've been too busy following more pressing developments involving area trees to pay attention, frankly.