Election day isn’t until next weekend, but I really can’t see any point in waiting til then, so Ingrid and I went and voted today.

It was a bit of a special moment for us, since it was our first time. First time voting at all for Ingrid, and first time voting in the national election for me. As a resident, I could vote in the local and regional elections, but I didn’t become a Swedish citizen until last summer. So this was my first time with three votes to cast.

It used to be that you could only vote on election day. And voting used to happen at schools and libraries. These days that still happens (both voting on the day of, and voting stations at libraries) but advance voting is very common. In Stockholm at least, many voting stations are temporary “cabins”. The one closest to me is right in the middle of Spånga. Today there was a small market going on, centered on marketing booths for various political parties. Those were easy to ignore since I had already voted when we passed them – the booths of local craftspeople making beautiful ceramics were harder to ignore. (Note for future me: the bowl I bought was made by Camilla Packendorff.)

Ingrid and I celebrated this day with a glass of bubbles and a crossword.