New Jersey Voters See Early Lines, Calmer Afternoons On Election Day
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (CBSNewYork) – Outside New York City - on Long Island and in New Jersey – Election Day seemed to be running much more smoothly.
Voting lines in the morning however, were packed no matter what state you were in.
The line outside polling sites, like Bright Street in Jersey City, seemed to go on forever.
"There's two to three hours lines," Jersey City resident Bradley Gray told CBS2.
"It's disgusting. It's voter suppression, it's a disgrace," Patricia Astolfi claimed.
Some people couldn't wait to fill their ballot.
"I was very happy to see the line. I just couldn't wait on the line at that point," Jon Salmon said.
Several voters came back late Tuesday afternoon and found the lines had finally cleared.
"We came this morning and the line was all the way around the building. So we came back," Meryl Salmon said.
"I came earlier and it was backed up earlier all the way around the corner. I couldn't even… I had to go to work." Kim Vanderhoef explained.
"It's really the bottleneck at the vetting process which takes place with the poll workers and the voting booths," Michael Harper of the Hudson County Board of Elections told CBS2's Alice Gainer.
Harper says the long lines were at two polling sites - E6 and E9. The elections clerk added they didn't want a repeat for the evening rush of voters.
Harper says officials, "made some adjustments to them, sent some additional poll workers, and broke the poll books down further from half alphabet to quarters of the alphabet."
Some voters say it's déjà vu; claiming the same thing happened during the 2016 election. Going forward, Harper says they will be adjusting polling locations further.
"Those two polling districts in particular have to be broken out to single districts where we can deal one on one right now they share with other districts."
As for other parts of New Jersey, Mercer County had to replace eight machines Tuesday.
Two had battery issues, one was damaged in delivery, and five were changed because poll workers closed them.
Clerks in other counties are also reporting a lot of confusion over the new law for mail-in ballots.
They told CBS2 people are showing up not realizing they received their ballots by mail and are now having to fill out a provisional ballot on site.
Many people in New Jersey are still saying it was smooth sailing for them. In and out in a matter of minutes. Jersey voters have until 8 p.m. to cast a ballot.
