Morning Voting Experiences Across D.C.
Your tweets are still rolling in to our #dcistvote Twitter feed, but first here's some dispatches from the DCist staff on their polling place experiences this morning.
- My wife and I voted at Precinct 87 (Payne Elementary) this morning on Capitol Hill. We got there a little before 9 a.m., and the line was not that long, not even outside the auditorium (not all that much longer that it has been in previous presidential elections). We heard that the line at Precinct 91 (Watkins Elementary, also on the Hill) was two blocks long outside the entrance. As we drove to work after voting we saw a line that wrapped all the way around the block (over two block lengths long, several people abreast) at Precinct 72 (Langdon Park Recreation Center, 2901 20th Street, NE). -Charles Downey
- Voted at Powell Elementary in Ward 4, got in line around 6:45, and made it inside in about an hour. The line started near 14th and was wrapped around 13th by the time we got there. Smooth process, friendly poll workers, friendlier crowd. Everyone had a friend in line, everyone was smiling and making conversation, very cheerful, very excited to be voting. Most people were given paper ballots, but there did seem to be a touch screen machine on hand. One woman left the school and yelled to the line, "Don't worry, it's worth it!"
Also notable - the number of people who brought folding chairs to wait in line, and many, many people kept turning around to take pictures of the line with their cameras and cell phones. No presidential signs, lots of signs for Kwame, Michael Brown (also had a table), and Carol Schwartz. A few signs for Sekou Biddle, someone was handing out materials for Ted Trebue (SB at large) and Muriel Bowser had people there. - Rachael Brown
- My polling place is the Wilson School in Rosslyn. Swung by at 6:45 - the line was snaked around the building and down to the fire station. Went to the gym - same story at around 8:10. Went back at 10:26. Voted: 10:32. I love working and living in Rosslyn. -Missy Frederick
- Voted at the 14th and U Boys and Girls club. The entire process took a little less than 2 hours. No problems outside of the wait for me, but a good friend of mine was forced to fill out a special ballot because his name was not on the rolls, even though he voted at the same precinct in the primary. He also has an unusual name (with an apostrophe in it). -Sriram Gopal
- A Red Bull rep just donated a bunch of Red Bull to give us energy to vote. The head voting guy just paused all registrations to announce it. Unreal. This was at 16th and P NW. In and out in 70 minutes. -Eric Denman
- My polling place is at the AME Zion Church at 16th and Meridian. I got there at 7:30 and the line was already wrapped all the way around the church. Jim Graham came through and shook hands with everybody. Several folks running for ANC Commissioner were also talking to folks in line and handing out fliers. I'm in ANC District 5 and several people were handing out fliers for a Herb Price, who is running for write-in. Some enterprising person also set up stand across the street and was selling coffee and tea. Once I got inside the building, voting was a little chaotic because the room was very small but otherwise very efficient. It only took a few minutes to get my ballot, vote, and have it scanned in the machine. All in all, a pretty smooth process. -Alicia Mazzara
- At 7:20 a.m. this morning the line outside the precinct at Shiloh Baptist Church on 9th Street in Shaw snaked around the block and down Q Street toward Rhode Island Ave. People in line were in good spirits, commenting that they'd never seen a line of this size in this neighborhood. The line moved at a decent clip. -Sommer Mathis
- Got to my polling place in Falls Church at about 7:30. There were maybe 75-100 people in line, but oddly, all of them were A-L. So I went to the very front of the M-Z line, got my paper ballot, filled in the bubbles, and put it in the scanner (I was the 154th person at my polling place to do so). A handful of people were choosing electronic voting instead. There were Republican and Democratic representatives out front handing out sample ballots, but the Republican table was getting a lot less activity. -Amanda Mattos
- I was in and out of Stuart-Hobson Middle School, ward 6, precinct 84 in under 10 minutes at about 10 a.m. Campaigners for Mara, Long, Schwartz and 3 for Michael Brown were outside, doing a whole lot of standing around doing nothing. Everyone was very jovial and the whole process was like a well oiled machine with many poll workers standing and directing in addition to the people handing out ballots. This was very different from the last vote where poll workers seemed like they hand no idea what was going on.-
Kelly Rand
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