Election '08 roundup: Hampton Roads goes to the polls

As Hampton Roads residents get out in the rain to vote today, PilotOnline.com will bring you the latest on problems, turnout and traffic tie-ups. Let us know what you see at the polls by calling (757) 446-2355 or e-mailing votingproblems@pilotonline.com. 

Also, leave a comment below describing your voting experience.

 

EARLY TO VOTE AT TEMPLE

7 p.m. - Portsmouth

About 400 people greeted poll workers at the Scottish Rite Temple voting precinct this morning when the polls opened at 6 a.m., but by the close at 7 p.m. there were only a few voters left.

“I was having nightmares about the onslaught of people,” said Evelyn Monroe, a poll worker. “I thought maybe I wouldn’t be leaving here until 11 o’clock. I was dreading today. I thought there would be all kinds of lines.”

Overall, the precinct reported an 81 percent voter turnout. Previous presidential elections have only drawn about 60 percent of the precinct’s voters.

“I thought we’d have a line at 7 p.m.,” said Connie M. Smith, the precinct’s chief voting officer. “I think they all came before they went to work in the morning.” 

- Kate Wiltrout

 

FEW VOTERS AT CLOSING

6:55 p.m. - Norfolk

With just minutes to go before the polls close at 7 p.m., there were no more than three voters in the Rosemont Middle School precinct.

- Bill Sizemore

 

CROWDS DOWN AFTER 5 O'CLOCK RUSH

6:43 p.m. - Chesapeake

The line to vote at the Dr. Clarence V. Cuffee Community Center dwindled after a 5 p.m. crush.

Shortly after 5 p.m., the wait was about 90 minutes long, but after 6:30 p.m. the wait was down to a 10 to 15-minute wait.

This morning, about 1,000 people were waiting in line when the voting machines went down.That represented about 50 percent of all voters in the precinct, a statement from the Virginia State Board of Elections said.

A non-partisan watchdog group, Election Protection, had people at the site tonight to help determine if extended hours would be needed, but with the slowdown they probably won't request extra hours.

- Matthew Bowers 

 

LATE RUSH DIDN'T HAPPEN

6:20 p.m. - Virginia Beach

At Red Mill Elementary School, election workers were waiting for an evening crush that hadn’t come.

“It looks like we’re going to hit 70 percent,” said precinct worker Gene Hansen, “but it was because of this morning.”

Shortly after polls opened Tuesday morning, a line stretched down the hall and eventually wrapped around the entire school.

Voting slowed by 1 p.m. and dropped off almost completely at 2:30 p.m.

At 6:20 p.m., only two of nine voting machines were in use.

- Lauren Roth

 

EARLY-VOTING LINES NOT REPEATED

5:27 p.m. - North Carolina

The long waits that plagued early voting in North Carolina haven't turned up on Election Day.

Several counties reported some lines of a few dozen people when polls opened Tuesday morning. But they quickly abated as sites processed those pre-workday voters. North Carolina's largest counties reported little or no waits at polling sites throughout much of the day, and some precincts only had a trickle of voters coming to cast a ballot.

The overwhelming turnout that sustained through the early voting period that ended Saturday processed some 2.6 million voters. Because of that, elections officials expected about 2 million people to vote Tuesday.

Polls in North Carolina close at 7:30 p.m.

- The Associated Press

 

4:40 p.m. - Norfolk

At Rosemont Middle School in Norfolk, where some voters had reported waits as long as 3 ½ hours Tuesday morning, there was no line and voting machines were sitting unused. 

“This is the first time it’s been like this all day,” poll worker Rosa Demory said.

She and the other workers were bracing for what they assumed would be another crush of voters as people get off work.

 

3:10 p.m. - Virginia

Virginians are voting at a record-setting pace.

The executive secretary of the State Board of Elections said at a briefing in Richmond that 30 percent to 40 percent of the state’s more than 5 million registered voters had cast ballots Tuesday morning. Nancy Rodrigues said that typically the turnout is about one-half of that pace.

She estimated that more than 75 percent of Virginia’s registered voters will have cast ballots by the time the polls close at 7 p.m.

While Rodrigues acknowledged long lines at the polls and some problems with voting machines, she said it is not extraordinary given the historic nature of this vote.

- The Associated Press

 

 2:30 p.m. -- Chesapeake

There were problems with electronic pollbooks, which are used to look up voters’ names and addresses, in at least 12 of Chesapeake’s 53 precincts, the city’s top voting administrator said Tuesday. Full story

-- Mike Saewitz

 

2:10 p.m. - Norfolk

Where hundreds of voters once crowded the hallway at Maury High School, there's nothing but dead leaves and muddy footprints. There's also no waiting.

Shortly after 2 p.m., fewer than a dozen people were at the polling place, and it took mere minutes to cast a vote.

- David  M. Putney

 

12:30 p.m. – Suffolk

With an umbrella shielding her from the misty rain, Rosalinda Henderson emerged from Northern Shores Elementary School after waiting two hours to vote. The 42-year-old Burbage Grant resident first showed up at 5:30 a.m. with her husband. She went home after seeing a line of several hundred people.

- Hattie Brown Garrow

 

11:45 a.m. – Chesapeake

Voting machines were turning on and off at Oscar Smith High School this morning.

The machines went down, then turned on and off for about a half hour before officials could get them going, said Jim Curtin, chief precinct officer.

Some people waited in line up to four hours, and lines were still out the door and stretched to the tennis courts at 11 a.m.

Only a handful of people gave up and left.

- Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer and Jeff Anderson

 

11:20 a.m. - Virginia Beach

Crowds were steady but well-behaved at Holland Elementary School this morning.

Some voters waited up to three hours, but by mid-morning, lines were down to about a one-hour wait.

Gloria Deans created a stir by wearing a bright red McCain-Palin T-shirt and stickers along her jeans. Some voters complained, Deans said, so she put on her jacket to partially cover up.

It was a compromise, she said. “That’s the American way.” 

- Lou Hansen

 

11:18 a.m. – Henrico County

Sen. Joe Biden made a brief campaign stop at a polling place in eastern Henrico County this morning and spent about 15 minutes shaking hands with voters outside.

Joining Biden was his wife, Jill, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and state Sen. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico.

Biden shook hands, gave hugs, posed for pictures and signed pictures and autographs.

“I always feel at the end of the race here that it ain’t over ‘til it’s over,” Biden said.

He gave his lapel pin to a boy standing along the rope line and joked with a teenage girl, “Just remember no boys ‘til you’re 30 years old.”

Before heading to the airport, he spoke with Wayne Phillips, a 19-year-old with sickle cell anemia. A first-time voter, Phillips had a voting machine brought to him in the parking lot because he was to weak to make it into the polling place on his own power.

Biden leaned into the back seat of the car where Phillips was sitting and gave him a hug.

- Julian Walker

11:18 a.m. – Suffolk

Voters are reporting waits of two hours or longer at several precincts, including White Marsh, King's Fork and Southside.

Erika Hayes, 37, arrived at about 7 a.m. to the downtown White Marsh precinct at the East Suffolk Community Center. At 9:45 a.m. she was close to the door but still not inside.

“They underestimated the turnout,” she said.

- Dave Forster

 

11:10 a.m. - Portsmouth

Portsmouth voters who arrived as early as 5 a.m. Tuesday at Emanuel A.M.E. Church at 637 North St. found the line stretching down the block and turning the corner all the way to Glasgow Street. When polls opened, the crowd began to move steadily, splitting into two lines, each half the alphabet. By 9 a.m., the line outside the church had nearly disappeared.

- Carolyn Shapiro

 

11:01 a.m. -Chesapeake

The line stretched more than 300 people long at 9 a.m. this morning at the city’s Churchland precinct at Western Branch Primary School, voting officials say.

One voter polled at around 10 a.m. said he waited two hours and 10 minutes to cast his ballot, said Al Spradlin, chairman of Chesapeake’s electoral board.

“The polls are busier than they’ve ever been in history,” Spradlin said.

At the Churchland precinct, there were some early problems hooking up electronic pollbooks at about 6:15 a.m. A few people had to cast paper ballots, he said. But those problems were fixed soon after.

“You’re going to have machine problems when you have as many machines as we do,” Spradlin said. 

- Mike Saewitz

 

11 a.m. - Statewide

Thousands of Virginians already have voted this morning with record numbers being reported by the State Board of Elections.

Few problems were reported statewide with three of the state’s 2,349 precincts reportedly opening late. Two of the late openings were blamed on human error but it wasn’t clear if one of those included Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Virginia Beach.

Some problems have been reported with optical scanners, according to the statement. Ballots that got wet on voters’ rain-soaked clothes and hands couldn’t be read by the machines. Voters were being asked to dry their hands before filling out ballots.

Calls were being dropped from the State Board of Elections Call Center because of equipment problems, the statement says.

Election workers are recording callers’ phone number via caller ID and calling them back, officials wrote.

Voters who don’t get a call back were being asked to contact the registrar in their city or county or to go to www.sbe.virginia.gov. 

- Cindy Clayton

 

11 a.m. - Norfolk

At 11 a.m., several hundred voters waited outside Rosemont Middle School. At least 200 more snaked through hallways inside and finally waited in a seating area before getting the chance to vote.

Some people reported waits as long as three and a half hours. Volunteers from the Obama campaign passed out water and snacks to those in the back of the line, some of whom had brought folding chairs.

“The folks in lines have been fantastic,” said Ted Maroulis, vice chairman of the city’s board of elections, who had dropped in to make sure things were running smoothly. “Everyone wants to do their part. It just takes a little time.”

The precinct, with nearly 4,000 voters, is one of the largest in Norfolk. Roughly 1,700 people had voted by 11 a.m., and another 440 had cast absentee ballots, election official Ken Grow said.

Despite the crowds, several voting booths at Rosemont stood empty as workers tried to check people in.

Two poll workers at Rosemont spent their time running ballots outside to elderly voters waiting in their cars. 

- Meghan Hoyer

 

10:25 a.m. – Chesapeake

Three of four computers used to check in voters at the at South Norfolk Recreation precinct - at the South Norfolk Community Center - weren’t working this morning.

One person was checking in voters when voting began at the center off Bainbridge Boulevard.

People who arrived at 5:25 a.m. had cast their ballots by 7:30 a.m. 

- Mark Carey

 

10:15 a.m. - Norfolk

The line contained inside Maury High School several hours ago has grown to more than 100 people waiting outside the school.

- Judy Le

 

10:15 a.m. - Virginia Beach

Voting was delayed almost a half-hour at Mt. Olive Baptist Church this morning.

The voting precinct chief arrived at 6:15 a.m., 15 minutes after the polls were supposed to open and nearly two hours later than required.

A line of 400 to 500 people waited while election officials scrambled to set up voting machines, said Tim Barrow, vice chairman of the Virginia Beach Electoral Board.

Voters cast their ballots on paper until the machines were operating, he said.

By 9 a.m., the voting line was slowing again. 

- Lou Hansen

 

9:52 a.m. - Chesapeake

Voters in line at the Oak Grove precinct at Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake have been in line for upwards of three hours.  An estimate soon after polls opened put the wait at 1,000 people. Staff are encouraging people to stay and line and are helping senior citizens to the front of the line to get paper ballots.

- Jeff Anderson

 

9:29 a.m. - Norfolk

 At Ocean View, 26-year-old Dana Parsons was rejected because her registration form had been filled out incorrectly, marking her as a non-citizen.

Parsons, who said she was registered by a worker who came to her house and filled out the paperwork for her. She cast a provisional ballot Tuesday and headed to City Hall, birth certificate in hand, to try to work out the problem.

“I don’t see what went wrong,” she said. “I’m going to go fix it.” 

-  Meghan Hoyer

 

8:55 a.m. – Chesapeake

An estimated 750 people still were standing in line at the Dr. Clarence V. Cuffee Community Center where a few people were irritated but most were being patient, said John Woodies, an election officer.

Voters mostly wanted to know what was happening before the machines finally started to operated about 7 a.m., he said.

“I got a big round of applause when I made the announcement that the machines were working,” Woodies said.

Still, the line wound its way around the gym and down at least one hallway.

“It’s unorganized, I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Mert Spalding, who said he’s been a Chesapeake resident since 1983.

- Genevieve Ross

 

8:37 a.m. - Portsmouth

The line was gone from Pinecrest Baptist Church on Felton Road where a problem with a voting machine caused a longer wait for some voters earlier this morning, elections officials said.

The machine was still down, but other machines were available.

- Jen McCaffery

 

8:25 a.m. - Chesapeake

Outside the Dr. Clarence V. Cuffee Community Center, Marie Lewis said she had just finished voting after nearly three hours of standng in line.

Lewis, whose daughter also had been with her, had to leave for work along with other people from the estimated crowd of about 1,000 voters standing in line.

Lewis said she understood that the machines inside the precinct were down until about 7 a.m.

- Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer

 

8:20 a.m. - Portsmouth

Elections officials at Bethany Baptist Church were reporting that problems with wet ballots seemed to have been resolved and the voting process was running smoothly.

- Jen McCaffery

 

8 a.m. - Chesapeake

The voter group Election Protection reported receiving problems from Chesapeake voters this morning.

Voters reported machines were down at the Dr. Clarence V. Cuffee Community Center and at Crestwood Middle School.

City election officials confirmed the problems at the school.

"There is no reason the voting should stop," said Chesapeake Voter Registrar Ginny Garrett.

There are paper ballots available, Garrett said. She also said there are technicians on their way to the polling station to fix the problem.

- Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer and Cindy Clayton

 

7:45 a.m. – Portsmouth

Bryan Meals, chairman of the Portsmouth Republican Party, said that he had reports that precincts across the city were having problems with ballots getting wet from voters’ wet clothing.

The machines were spitting out the ballots and voters were being told to fill out a new, dry ballot.

Election workers were asking voters to keep the ballots away from their clothing.

He also said that he had received reports that one machine was down at each of the following precincts:

- Pinecrest Baptist Church on Felton Road

- Bethany Baptist Church on Portsmouth Boulevard

- Emily N. Spong Preschool Center on Piedmont Avenue

Elections officials were working on the problem, Meals said.

- Jen McCaffery

 

7:30 a.m. – Norfolk

At Norfolk's Maury High School, the line looks deceptively short.

Elections officials allowed voters to wait inside to get out of the light rain that was falling. Only a handful were stuck outside, but inside a triple queue snaked down a dark and stuffy hallway, around the corner and back, wrapping around to get into the polling place.

- David M. Putney

 

7:20 a.m. - Norfolk

Less than 90 minutes after polls opened, the line to vote at W.H. Taylor Elementary School in Norfolk stretched out the door, down Princess Anne Road and around the corner onto Claremont Avenue.  Many voters brought umbrellas to stay dry from the light drizzle.

- Laura Michalski

 

7 a.m. - Norfolk

At Grace Zion Methodist Church, the line of voters stretched along Little Creek Road and turned onto residential streets as crowds slowly inched their way toward the chance to use one of the seven voting machines in the church hall.

Corey Smith, 20, was turned away by election officials who told him he had to vote at his old polling place. Smith had thought he was registered at his new address.

“I’ve got to go to the other precinct, wait in their long line,” Smith said, shrugging, saying he still planned to vote and wouldn’t mind waiting again.

Billy Perera and her husband, Dennis Gubler, carried folding chairs that they never used. When they arrived, the line stretched three blocks away, but it moved steadily, Perera said.

“We thought we’d have to wait 3 to 4 hours,” she said. “But it’s pretty fast. There’s no need to sit.” 

- Meghan Hoyer

 

6:50 a.m. - Portsmouth 

Voters who stood in the rain outside Emanuel A.M.E. Church on North Street in Portsmouth found their ballots got a little wet when they went inside. One of the machines that reads the ballots was having problems as a result. Some voters had to vote a second time on a dry ballot.

- Genevieve Ross

 

6:05 a.m. - Chesapeake 

Police dispatchers were reporting that traffic already was backing up at precincts around the city, especially in Greenbrier and Western Branch.  Officers are posted at polling places and may not be able to direct traffic at some intersections, dispatchers said. Police were urging drivers to be patient. 

- Cindy Clayton

5:55 a.m. – Virginia Beach

The line stretched through the building and out the door, almost to the sidewalk at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia.

After voters spent about 20 minutes in the rain, election officials had them file inside the building and sit inside the auditorium.

One of the nine voting machines wasn’t working.

People who arrived shortly before 6 a.m. had voted by 7:25 a.m.

- Tiphaine Czahor

6:15 a.m. – Virginia Beach

About 300 voters huddled under umbrellas in a line that snaked around all sides of London Bridge Baptist Church. The line was moving steadily, but the average waiting time was 1 1/2-2 hours.

At the head of the line, precinct officials helped to speed the process along by dividing the crowd into sections, according to the initial of their surnames. That permitted more to enter the building and get out of the drizzling rain sooner.

-- Kerry Sipe 

 

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