‘It’s something we all have the privilege to do and should do’

Voters continued to report long lines but a smooth process at polling places across the Twin Cities on Tuesday.

Diane Ostroviak spent almost an hour Tuesday morning at her polling place in East Bethel, mainly because of her last initial.

"I got there at 7:20 and got out at 8:15," she reported. "I’ve never seen a turnout like this for any election, and I thought it was great.

"(But) there were huge lines for H-O, and no lines at all for A-G or P-Z. With all the Hansons, Johnsons, Nelsons and Olsons in this state, why would you group us together in one line? That part made no sense."

Nevertheless, Ostroviak noted, all the Hansons, Johnsons, Nelsons and Olsons who waited with her "were very friendly."

At the Hassan Township Town Hall, west of Rogers, Laurie Hayes was 123rd in line Tuesday morning, but was in and out in about a half-hour — and the line was still out the door when she left at 8:15 a.m.

"I felt like I was part of a major event in voting history," she said. "I told my daughter this morning that this election will be talked about years from now, so she should take note."

Julie Chuba voted at about 8:30 a.m. at Olivet Methodist Church in Robbinsdale. "There was a small but very steady line," she reported. "I heard the volunteers say that they had a long line when the polls opened at 7 a.m."

During her 20-minute wait, Chuba said, all the voting booths and tables were full. "Others (went) to sit on some sofas in the church basement voting area and vote with their ballots on their laps," she said.

She said she left the polling place, adorned with her red "I voted" sticker, and headed immediately for Starbucks, which was offering a free cup of coffee all day to anyone nationwide who came in and said that they had cast a vote.

Theresa Jarosz Alberti also had a 20-minute wait at about 10 a.m. at Brackett Park, in south Minneapolis’ Longfellow neighborhood.

"Nothing really interesting happened, though there was some discussion about how far away political signs need to be from the polling place," she said.

The conversation was sparked because Democratic state Rep. Jim Davnie, who is running for re-election, lives directly across the street from the polling location, and his yard was full of political signs. "Were his signs too close to the polling place? It was just something to talk about while waiting," Alberti said. "Of course, we live in a heavily liberal area, and Davnie always wins, and most people vote Democrat at Brackett. So who would complain?"

Kathleen Baxter was hoping the long lines would have diminished when she arrived at Adams Elementary School in Coon Rapids Tuesday afternoon, and her hopes were rewarded.

"We got to the school around 2:15, a time I picked because I thought it might not be so busy, and it was not," she said. "There was a steady stream of voters, but not a surge at all. All very manageable."

One of the election judges told Baxter that the site mirrored other Twin Cities polling locations when it opened Tuesday morning, with long lines of people waiting to vote, and that turnout was much heavier than usual.

At midday Tuesday, Lani Jordan left an early-morning meeting in Minneapolis and swung past her polling place in St. Paul.

"I walked right in," she said. "We traditionally have one of the highest turnout precincts in a city with high turnout, so early morning and after work can be horrid."

She was pleased to see, "instead of the cadre of elderly ladies who, bless them, have worked the polls for years," a group of Macalester College students staffing the tables.

"If nothing else, this election has jazzed up the young folks on both sides of the political line," said Jordan, whose three daughters, all eligible to vote for the first time this year (and all away at college), cast absentee ballots.

Jordan summed up a feeling that was expressed more than once on Tuesday.

"I must confess that generally I am a hardened cynic, probably the result of my years as a newspaper reporter," she said. "But Election Day always makes me emotional. It’s something we all have the privilege to do and should do. I love the experience."