Politics & Government

Voters Brave Cold, Lines At Halstead Academy

Just 20 minutes before polls closed, sources reported a two hour wait to vote at the Parkville school.

As a result of high turnout, long lines were the norm around the Parkville-Overlea area for much of the day Tuesday; in one case voters waited for nearly two hours to cast their ballots at a Parkvlle area school.

By 9 p.m., those long lines were winding down at the Halstead Academy of Arts & Sciences but voters still reported they'd been waiting around an hour and a half.

At the back of the line, 21-year-old Andrew Kraft said that he was willing to brave the line in the name of participating in the democratic process.

Find out what's happening in Parkville-Overleawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"I missed the last election by about 5 months," Kraft said. "This is my first, and I wanted to get the experience. Mainly I came out to vote on Questions 6 and 7, but I wanted to cast my vote for president too."

Frances Adams, who cast her vote after a similar wait, said that participating in the election as a whole was important to her.

Find out what's happening in Parkville-Overleawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"It's just the whole thing," she said. "We wanted to come out and cast our vote for the things we felt were right."

One of the voters leaving the polling place around 9:15 p.m. said that she'd waited close to 2 hours to cast her ballot—30 minutes of which was spent outdoors.

"I came out to vote because I'm registered and it's my civic duty," said Marionese Forderingham.

Julianne Grim, who was collecting election results at the school, said that she spoke to a few voters in line around 7:40 p.m. who said they'd been waiting for almost 2 hours.

"Having worked this precinct before, turnout here was definitely higher than it was in the 2010 election," said Grim. "It's inspiring to see people coming out to participate, not only to vote for their candidates but for the referendum questions—from speaking to people in line, that's definitely part of what drove them to the polls tonight."

What drove you to the polls to cast your vote? Tell us in the comments.


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