Fort Hunt Voters Head to the Polls

The line to vote at Fort Hunt Elementary School moved swiftly Tuesday morning according to Chief Election Officer Kathleen Cassidy. The wait for most of the morning was about 15 minutes.

"Earlier it slowed down around 10 and again at noon. Most of the day it's been a 15-minute wait," Cassidy said.

Amy Bowman — who voted for President Barack Obama — said she arrived at 6 a.m. and the wait was about an hour long so she returned later. Bowman said different issues brought her out to the voting polls Tuesday.

"It's the presidential election so it's very important to vote. The constitutional amendments that are on the ballot, one of them could be very harmful, so I definitely wanted to come out and vote against that eminent domain amendment," Bowman said. "I also thought it was important to vote for the stormwater bond because it would be helpful for the people down in Huntington."

Compared to 2008, Cassidy said most of the election officers said they don't remember it being nearly as busy. However, with the long lines, Cassidy said voters have been very patient.

"I haven't seen any impatience at all. People have been very patient, ready and willing to wait. We've had election officials in the hall talking to people and encouraging them to read up on the issues before they get inside and have their IDs ready," Cassidy said. "Once they're in here and the machine line gets long, we encourage them to get out of the line and get a paper ballot if they want to get going, and they like that."

For the most part, Cassidy and other election officials haven't had any major issues besides redirecting people to the correct precincts. She said the county getting a high staffing level probably helped.