Long lines of voters snaked around polling places across the country on Tuesday. People in many states waited for hours — sometimes because of voting problems and in other cases, simply because of enormous turnout.
Despite the long lines, most voting went smoothly. There were, however, some glitches in important battleground states.
Below, a breakdown of some of the key places voters experienced challenges on Election Day.
Virginia
An early-morning rush and bad weather in some parts of the state combined to create a messy start to the day in Virginia. One Richmond polling place opened late when a poll worker overslept. By the time voting began at the site, hundreds of people were in line.
In other parts of the state, rain drenched people while they waited to vote. Wet paper ballots then jammed voting machines, causing further delays.
In Chesapeake, Virginia, crowds of voters arrived at polling places after work, pushing lines even farther around the block into the darkness.
Voter David Lee Spellman of Chesapeake wrote in a sworn affidavit collected by Election Protection that he had waited more than five hours to vote. "This is unacceptable," he wrote, "especially since the governor was forewarned about the possible lack of preparation. It was public knowledge that voter registration was at a record high and that the anticipated voter turnout was great."
State election officials said some voters received automated phone calls sending people to the wrong polling place. Officials warned voters not to believe such calls.
At George Mason University, someone hacked into the school's computer system and sent students and teachers an e-mail claiming to be from the school provost. The e-mail said the election had been moved to Nov. 5. The real provost, Peter Stearns, later followed up saying, "The notion that one party votes Nov. 5 is untrue."
Florida
Eight years ago, voting problems in Florida infamously extended the presidential election for weeks. Ultimately, the Supreme Court had to intervene. This time around, election supervisors in the state said there were plenty of glitches but nothing on the scale of 2000.
Palm Beach County Administrator Bob Weisman told the Palm Beach Post that voting problems are "minor in nature, but there are a lot of them."
John Greenbaum of Election Protection described "massive breakdowns" with electronic voting machines. He said poll workers responded to those breakdowns appropriately by issuing paper ballots and placing the completed ballots in lockboxes, but when those boxes filled up, poll workers started storing ballots in duffel bags or in piles on the floor.
Greenbaum said that is not acceptable.
"They need to come up with a method to make sure people's ballots are safe," he told reporters.
At least two polling places in Florida opened late. At one, a lock had been changed. At the other, a precinct clerk spent an hour filling out paperwork before opening the doors at 8 a.m. State law requires all polling places to open by 7 a.m.
At some voting places, poll workers had to crosscheck election-day voters' names with lists of people who had voted early. However, the lists of early voters were not alphabetized. As a result, some Florida voters waited in long lines while poll workers scanned the names on huge lists to make sure people weren't voting twice.
Pennsylvania
On Monday, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter urged people not to vote before or after work because they feared the crowds could be overwhelming. Indeed, by the time polling places opened at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, more than 100 people were already waiting in line at some voting sites. Rendell urged people to "hang in there."
Philadelphia Elections Supervisor Bill Rubin told CNN that voting machines failed in 8 out of the city's 1,681 election divisions. He said voters at those sites were allowed to use emergency paper ballots.
There were also reports of misleading fliers being distributed to voters in Pennsylvania that said Democrats should vote on Wednesday and Republicans on Tuesday.
Rebecca Halton, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of State, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that problems so far were minor.
"Nothing that hasn't been mitigated quickly and successfully," she said, "and at this point, nothing that's uncommon."
Ohio
Ohio decided the presidential race four years ago. This year, thousands of new voters have caused some problems.
NPR's Andrea Seabrook reports that first-time voters are causing a snag known as the "double bubble." This is when a voter marks the circle next to a candidate's name and also writes the candidate's name in the section that says, "Write in Candidates."
Some machines recognize this problem and allow election officials to manually determine voter intent. But in other instances, the voting machine negates the vote without notifying election officials. Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has instructed election officials to count "double bubble" ballots by hand after unofficial results are announced Tuesday night.
In one Ohio polling place, a touch-screen voting machine would only cast ballots for independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader. According to the Columbus Dispatch, a poll worker told voters, "You can use it if you want to vote for him."
Missouri
In Kansas City, Mo., a polling place opened with the wrong list of registered voters. As the line of people waiting to vote grew, some people left, saying they would come back to vote later.
Voters around the state reported that polling places were overextended. NPR Correspondent Larry Abramson observed waits of more than 5 hours at one St. Louis polling site. St. Louis voter Jamie Rodriguez told NPR via Twitter, "Poll workers short staffed, coming outside and asking random people if anyone can help!"
When Missouri's chief elections official voted early on Monday, she was asked for identification. Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan told reporters she's afraid that poll workers in the state may try to demand identification from voters even though Missouri does not have a voter ID law.
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