A year ago this week, on a business trip to the US, I was given behind-the-scenes media access to a polling station in Arlington County as Americans exercised their democratic right on so-called 'Super Tuesday'.
All but a handful of the voters declared themselves for Hillary Clinton that day. She was a shoo-in. Seven months ahead of the election itself, few would dare have predicted the seismic shift that was about to happen in the States.
But if you were a Hillary fan (and a pro-European), you've probably come to expect disappointment after 2016.
These things can happen . . . which is why I've a gut feeling we're about to get something ever-so-slightly different over the next day and a half in Northern Ireland
There's been an inane predictability to covering elections here, as I've done for 30 years. It hasn't been pretty.
But this time I sense the public are giving the system a proper boot up the nether regions, and as the ballot boxes open and results trickle in over the coming few hours, we just might see a shift in people's expectations and finally put it up to politicians who've previous taken their support for granted.
It's as rare as a fully-honoured pre-election political promise that I would admit to being "excited" at covering an election count. Yet I am. And while the big parties might not lose overall control, they'll at least get a bloody nose - and it's about bloody time.
Gary Mcdonald is The Irish News business editor
