Honored to be in Egypt for #EgyptElection, along with @Uncle_Jimbo and @SecStudiesGrp team. Polls close today, and we’ve visited several polling places. Here are some quick thoughts. 
The professionalism and seriousness of most of the poll workers was impressive. We visited polling places at random, and had unfettered access. Egyptian Election Authority couldn’t have given us more independence.
We visited an unbelievably wide range of polling places, representing most of the socio-economic range in Egypt. From neighborhoods of fully-covered women to areas where we spotted Hermès handbags.
Here’s what we didn’t see: people being bused to polls; voters being coerced; people protesting the #EgyptElection. As a matter of fact, we remarked about how most of the voters were walking in alone or with very small family groups.
Very very high percentage of female voters in the higher status parts of Cairo—I was thinking we should leave once we saw the first male voter walk through the door, but we’d have probably been there for a long time. #EgyptElection2018.
Sure, lots of cynical analysts have made much of the larger, structural issues regarding #EgyptElections2018–especially when it comes to candidates whose candidacy was ruled invalid. They’ve got a reasonable point. But we came to observe the mechanics of voting.
