My husband, newbyblogger and a friend of ours and I went to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections to vote in downtown Cleveland today. We got there at about 12:30 pm, half an hour before the place was supposed to open. It was a typical fall day, dreary, rainy and a little bit cold. We were really surprised to see the lines! We were half an hour early and there were already probably 100 people in front of us. By the time the line started moving, the line curled around the corner, easily several hundred people.
This was the line in front of us:
and the line behind us:
The Board was very efficient. They had lots of booths set up, computers to confirm people's registration and everyone was pretty patient and cheerful. We finished up at about 1:45 pm. When we left there were 2 lines, one going in the front door and one out the back.
It was really amazing. All of the church folk were arriving when we left. Many of the local churches have buses which take people down to the Board for early voting.
Lines may not be as bad November 4 as we thought they might due to all of this early voting. We have volunteered to take people to the polls that day and now we don't have to worry about voting too.
Pictures of the lines are below.
Go Obama!!
The line as we left: