I covered the Rolling Hills annexation vote last night. The process is pretty old-fashioned, but is handled like any other election by the Election Center of our probate office. Trey Granger, director of elections, explained it to me before polls closed, as we watched people coming in to cast their vote in favor of, or against, joining Pike Road.

Granger told me that the ballot boxes were a little different for annexation elections. While regular ballots are printed for this election, the law still says a person could come in with any old piece of paper with "for annexation" or "against annexation" written on it, and file that in the same box. It would be counted along with the rest of the votes.

Also, votes were slowly counted aloud by Granger while poll workers sat around a table, all making tick marks on official tally sheets. When they were finished, all the poll workers agreed on the numbers. It was a real community-effort kind of thing, complete with homemade cookies.