On Wed, 16 May 2012 08:19:29 -0700 (PDT), TimR
wrote:

I started with the assumption the switch was bad, did the checking
mostly out of curiosity (and of course, when trying to figure out
which breaker controls the circuit and the light is NOT working, it's
handy to have a way to know).

Test the bad switch with an ohm meter

And yes I've had trouble with digital meters and phantom results on no
load circuits, that's why I asked (and why I have a Simpson on the
shelf, but unwinding all those probe wires is a pain, not as bad as
winding them up to get them back in the case though).

But on 120 V circuits normally that meter reads okay or floats a bit.

I left out a couple of things. The fixture had no lamp in it, so that
circuit should be open. The kitchen lights are on the same circuit,
they went out when I got the right breaker (if I'd known that ahead of
time I wouldn't need a meter, technically).

The 80V terminal to terminal on the switch was with the switch off AND
no lamp in the fixture. With switch on, it went to 0 as I'd expect.
It was consistent with several measurements and was the same as wire
to wire with the switch removed (and still no lamp in the fixture).
That surprised me. And then when I went outside and put the same
meter on the fixture and got 120 V I was suprised again.

After work tonight I'll put the analog on it and see.