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November 5, 2008

It was worth the wait

DEBORAH HASTINGS AP National Writer

Lines stretched around buildings and down city blocks as people waited hours to cast ballots in the historic presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain. Some touch-screen machines briefly malfunctioned, but the country’s election system seemed to run smoothly.

The biggest trouble was big crowds. But folks seemed to take it in stride. University students in Florida were prepared to wait hours after polls closed and massive lines remained.

“What’s keeping me here? America needs a change, said 18-year-old Lauren Feronti at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.” We need to get the right people in office.”

In Maryland, Sen. Benjamin Cardin was heartened after visiting a polling precinct. “People are happy and smiling,” he said. “People are very anxious to be voting. They really think they are part of history, and they are.”

Early voting before Election Day, which drew record crowds in key battleground states, appeared to ease polling pressures on Tuesday. Despite long lines, polls in Ohio — which suffered delayed tallies in 2004 because of malfunctioning machines and huge crowds — closed without incident — or lawsuits.

In hotly contested Pennsylvania, polls also closed with no apparent problems. Earlier Tuesday, a judge dismissed an NAACP lawsuit that sought to force Philadelphia County elections officials to count emergency paper ballots past closing time. Voting officials said they plan to count those ballots Friday.

Some New Jersey voters were forced to cast paper ballots because of troublesome touch-screen machines. Similar problems popped up elsewhere, but were more sporadic than widespread. “The majority of them seem to be functioning OK, but there are trouble spots, not unexpected,” said Purdue University computer science professor Eugene Spaffor.

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