Unusually large numbers of voters were turning out at the polls today to choose between President Bush and Democratic Sen. John Kerry after a deadlocked White House campaign marked by deep divisions over the war in Iraq, the battle against terrorism and the economy.
In Douglas County, hard-fought races for Congress, the state Legislature and even a district court judgeship inspired what officials continued to say appeared to be near-record or record turnout. Nationwide, as many as 125 million Americans were voting to set the nation's course for the next four years. In Douglas County, more than 65,000 people were registered to vote, and state officials were predicting turnout of 75 percent or more.
Despite it being a busy election day, there were no major problems reported locally, according to Marni Penrod, deputy county clerk for elections.
Tell us about your own voting experience today"We had to run some more provisional ballot envelopes to some precincts," Penrod said. "Four precincts needed more ballots."
Penrod predicted that the first local results will be coming in well after the polls close at 7 tonight.
"It's always a guess," she said. "We may not really get started with a steady flow of precincts until 8. I bet it will be 9. But that's just an estimate."
Early Tuesday, long lines formed at polling stations.
At 7 a.m. Tuesday, the line was so long at Hillcrest Elementary School that arriving voters had to stand outside the building to wait their turn to get a ballot. It took one voter arriving at that time a half-hour to get through the line and cast his vote.
It was even more crowded on the west side of Lawrence.
Voters who arrived at 7:40 a.m. at the polling place at First Southern Baptist Church, 4300 W. Sixth St., had to endure an hourlong wait to vote, including 40 minutes outside in a blustery wind.
Poll workers said some voters arriving at 7 a.m. saw the long line and went home, apparently planning to try again later.
Uppermost among the comments heard from people in line: "I hope I'm at the right place because if I'm not I won't have time to go somewhere else to vote."
The long wait at the polling place was despite about twice as many voting booths being used as usual.
At 9:30 a.m., the wait to get to a voting booth at First Southern Baptist was about 30 minutes. Tom Eblen, a retired Kansas University professor, said:
"By far the biggest crowd I've ever seen for a presidential election going back to 1960 , the first one I voted in."
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