Eight days of early voting comes to end with Election Day approaching
BALTIMORE - Times up if you want to vote in person before next week's Election Day.
Thursday is the deadline for early voting, and the polls close at 8 p.m.
WJZ visited a couple of early voting sites in Baltimore City and Baltimore County and saw a decent amount of people going in to cast their ballots early.
The Board of Elections say the last two days of early voting are usually the busiest.
MORE: WJZ's voter guide to the 2022 general election
Early voters had eight days to cast their ballot at Maryland polling locations.
"I did my early voting. I'm so excited, I don't know what to do," Baltimore resident Sharon Templeton said.
"I'm going to be out of town on Tuesday so I decided to come in and make sure that mine gets counted," said Ryan Armstrong, from Catonsville.
James Walters, from Baltimore, said he mailed in his vote, but took a friend to the polls.
"I brought a friend so she could early vote. Me, I did the mail in," Walters said. "The stakes are always high. You've got to look at it that way."
In the first seven days of early voting, more than 290,000 people turned out across the state for early voting.
As of Wednesday Night, the State Board of Elections received nearly 324,000 mail-in ballots.
WJZ caught up with first-time voter Kattia Gibb Hernandez, who was excited to submit her vote at the Arbutus Recreation Center in Baltimore County,
"It means a lot," said Hernandez, who recently become a United States citizen. "It's the first time I'm able to vote. It's a great honor and a great pride for myself to express my opinion in the political."
With so many important races in this midterm election, and with more options on how to vote, voters say there's no reason not to cast your ballot.
"Come on out y'all, let's get this vote done. We've got to be heard," Templeton said.
You can still send in your mail in ballots if you want to vote early. Those ballots have to be postmarked on or before Election Day.
Election Day is just five days away now on November 8.
