Update: No Waiting in Line for Early Voters

Update, 12:39 p.m.: Voter turnout continued at a snail's pace throughout the afternoon. 

College Park poll worker Faith Rodell, who had been at the College Park Community Center since 6:15 a.m. Tuesday, said that in her 30 years of experience volunteering, this was a very slight turnout for a primary.
She said they lost voters early on because the polls at that location opened 20 minutes late.

"When I went in there at 20 after to vote, they still didn't have the check-in machines functioning," she said.

Primary voters at the Eleanor Roosevelt High School polling place experienced no lines as polls opened Tuesday morning.

"It was very quick," said early voter Tecumseh Deloney.

Her sentiment was shared by the other dozen voters that showed up at the school for the first hour of voting.

Deloney said she was impressed with the amount of poll workers who were present. Everyone there had been very pleasant, she added, and the workers outside did their job well, encouraging their candidates in a gentle way and handing out literature.

"I had read over all of the literature and had made up my mind before I went in," she said. "I was over-prepared."

Another voter, Ronna Stockard, said that she always votes at Roosevelt on her way to work because of its convenience. 

"I was in the neighborhood, and it wasn't a big deal," Stockard said.

Stockard didn't see the need to participate in the early voting process, as there are usually no lines, no waiting and helpful poll workers at Roosevelt on election day.

Poll workers thought the nice weather might encourage more voters to come out.

"I heard we should be expecting 25 percent," poll worker Mike Wein said.

Wein has been volunteering at polls for the past 14 years and said that for primary elections, candidates with stronger bases tend to see higher voter turnout.

Another poll worker, J. Davis, was not surprised that so few voters had arrived early. She said that since they split the precinct a few years ago, they've gotten half the traffic in voters. 

Davis said voters used to be lined up on the sidewalk.

"Early voting may be a reason, too. They don't have to come out and vote," she said.