Some voters wait until after 9 p.m. to cast ballot

As much as two hours after the official close of the voting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Yuma County residents were still waiting in line at some polls to cast their ballots in the general election.

At Oasis Church at 1545 S. Avenue C, the Precinct 6 poll, some voters were casting their ballot as late as 9:15 p.m., as a result of long lines that slowed the process of voting. Voters who were in line before the official 7 p.m. closing of polls were being allowed to remain until they could cast their ballots.

"It's really been long," said Juana Gyek, a voter at Precinct 9. "I'm hungry and it's really cold. (But) I decided I wanted to be a part of history."

Lines of voters remained formed at other polls around the county after 7 p.m.

Aside from heavy turnout, voting was slowed by a state law requiring poll workers to check identification of all voters, said county spokesman Kevin Tunell.

Nonetheless, county officials lauded a successful election Tuesday, stressing that even though lines at polling places reached two or more hours in length, the heavy turnout for a population election was handled smoothly.

"Technically speaking I think things have gone really well," said Tunell. "This has been a big election with very heavy turnout. There has been a lot going into this election and a lot of notoriety about this election. We've known we were going to have good-sized turnout today."

According to eyewitness reports throughout Election Day, wait times at polling places ranged anywhere from brief to several hours. In some cases people reported being in line with 100-150 people. In some cases those lines wrapped about the building.

But Tunell said that Yuma County did a good job managing the major flow of voters, a trend reported by cities from coast to coast.

"It's like this across the United States," he said. "It's not just (specific) to Yuma County. It's a phenomena being felt across the country. This is a very important election and people want to be a part of it."

Yuma County election polls opened at 6 a.m. and lines had formed outside some locations before 8 a.m.

Tunell said that by 2 p.m. 23,677 ballots had been cast at polling places around the county Tuesday. That compares to 16,904 ballots by the same time during the 2004 election.

Tunell said polling places were running smoothly Tuesday morning, handling crowds that he said did not seem to dominate any one particular polling location. He stressed that a polling location may experience long lines during a peak hour, then see the wait decrease almost to nothing within a short period of time.

"It just depends a lot on the time of day," he said.

Tunell said only problem consistently seen at the polls was voters turning up without proper photo identification.

The county's 42 polls remained open until 7 p.m. and some later to accommodate waiting voters.

In recent elections, more than half of Yuma County voters have used early mail-in ballots and a record number requested them again this year.

---

This story was updated at 9:53 p.m.