A long line of voters waits outside the Douglas County Courthouse to cast their ballots Monday on the last day of advance voting. County officials estimated that the wait would be about 30 minutes because of the number of voters. Some people in line passed the time by crocheting, e-mailing, reading or photographing the scene.

Troy Dunnaway has good timing.

The Eudora resident and carpentry foreman for the Kansas Turnpike Authority rushed to the Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Mass., from a Kansas City area construction site.

Dunnaway was the last person to make it in line outside the courthouse just minutes before the noon deadline to cast his advance ballot. Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew and a sheriff’s deputy had to turn away a handful of people from getting in line minutes after noon.

“I knew I’d be close to get here on time. I didn’t think I was going to have time tomorrow. I figured I’d hurry and get down here today,” Dunnaway said.

Shew said more than 800 people cast advance ballots in person Monday morning alone. Election workers by law had to cut off advance voting so they could prepare the poll books for regular voting from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. today.

By the end of Monday, 18,158 people either cast advance in-person ballots or had requested a mail-in ballot since Oct. 15, Shew said. If anyone still has a mail-in ballot, they should physically bring it before 7 p.m. today to the courthouse because it won’t count if it’s only postmarked today, Shew said.

A total of 83,175 are registered to vote on Douglas County, so the number of people who’ve voted in advance or requested an advance ballot represents nearly 22 percent of registered voters.

Monday morning, the courthouse was packed with a long line that spilled outside. Some people waited for 30 to 40 minutes as election workers ran three voting lines.

The next-to-last person in line Monday said it was a good thing he made it in time. Steve Tovar, Kansas University’s linebackers coach, said he has plenty of game plan preparation to do, so he wanted to cast his ballot early.

“More people are informed, and they care,” Tovar said. “That’s the great thing about not only Lawrence, but in the United States, that everybody has a voice no matter what your background is.”