Photo by pablo.raw.

Good morning, Washington. WMATA really buried the lede yesterday, didn’t it? The revelation that riders would no longer be able to exit Metrorail stations with a negative SmarTrip balance (at least, not without using a cash-only machine to supplement said balance) is ostensibly to counter people who might abuse the system, but is quite annoying in our now mostly-cashless society. TBD reports that Metro is defending the move by calling it “a necessary step to make sure we have the same rules applying to paper [farecards] and SmarTrip,” which certainly didn’t win any points with the angry, Twittering masses. GGW’s David Alpert finds the move hasty, and wonders why WMATA didn’t “have someone run an analysis of the numbers of negative SmarTrips that get abandoned” before they made the decision. Of course, if WMATA ever got around to linking credit cards to SmarTrips, this wouldn’t be such a big deal, now would it?

Like An Old Man Getting Out Of A Bath: “It’s slow to boot up, like an old DOS computer, and it probably will take awhile to tabulate once the polls have closed.” Not really the kind of lede you want to read about the District’s new voting machines, but the Post says that the machines were at least working properly during a public test yesterday. For those expecting immediate results come Primary Day, well, you may be disappointed: BOEE executive director Rokey W. Suleman II said that machines will likely take 90 minutes to process information after the polls close on September 14. Factor in the paper vote counting and a tight race, and it could be a very long night indeed.

Back, and To The Left; Back, and To The Left: Did Nationals centerfielder Nyjer Morgan whip a ball into the stands at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park with the intention of hitting a Phillies fan? Major League Baseball certainly thinks so, handing the charismatic Morgan a seven-game suspension before last night’s game. Morgan is appealing the punishment, but neither he nor manager Jim Riggleman nor Nats bloggers seem to know exactly what happened. Still, seven games? Here’s hoping Morgan made it count.

Words To Live By: This week’s Loose Lips’ column tackles Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, who apparently was again “pre-complaning” about how he would be portrayed in the story, just as he was when the Post’s Paul Schwartzman profiled the Ward 1 race earlier this month. Writes Alan Suderman: “As it happens, Graham also called LL and LL’s boss to pre-complain before the first word of this story you’re reading now was written. What concerned Graham, he says, were reports that some “bitter” former staff members were speaking ill of him. Which is probably a valid concern, given that some of his former staffers are now working for his opponents.” At least Graham went on the record this time, declaring that “[p]eople should know who they are voting for.”

Briefly Noted: Vince Gray picks up Current endorsement, talks with WAMU’s Patrick Madden…Parts of I-66 to close overnight for rail work…Leesburg serial stabber in court in Michigan today…The New York Avenue Metro station has big issues with bike security…”If you ever make it out to far Northwest, and happen to turn right off Reservoir Road on to Foxhall, you’ll notice a vast open hillside, veined with stone walls waiting to enclose gigantic new mansions, for all the world like a little piece of McLean had been transposed to Washington.”

This Day in DCist: Last year, Washington remembered Ted Kennedy; in 2008, we reported on a cyclist who was run off the road by a driver — MPD wasn’t too concerned about it, though.