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Long lines reported at polling stations throughout US

Lines appear to be largely manageable as of Tuesday afternoon.

Graig Graziosi
Tuesday 03 November 2020 19:36 GMT
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People wait in line to vote near Washington DC
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Long lines formed around polling places across the country on Tuesday as Americans set out to vote in the 2020 US election.  

In Astoria, a neighborhood in the Queens borough of New York City, a line of voters was nearly three-and-a-half blocks long.  

The New York Post talked to a man who had arrived at his polling location just before 6 am and ended up waiting nearly 90 minutes before he could vote.  

“This is insane. Four years ago, you almost got right in,” he said. “Thank God I got here early. There should be more locations.”

In the region surrounding Washington DC, some voters waited in hours-long lines.

In Calvert County, Maryland, some voters had to wait in long lines before casting a vote. According to local broadcaster NBC 4, by 11am lines at four of the Calvert County voting locations were about two hours.  

Other Maryland voting centres, like the "super vote" venue at the FedExField in Maryland and the Washington DC based Capital One Arena had much shorter wait times.  

Voters in more rural districts in Chattanooga, Tennessee also faced long lines in the morning. Voters there told local newspaper the Chattanooga Times Free Press that they had waited between 40 minutes and an hour before they could vote.  

According to the paper, some rural districts do not have early voting locations, which means lines tend to be longer on Election Day.  

Matt Scalici, a sports producer in Alabama, said lines at his polling place in Hoover were the longest he had ever seen.  

"A poll worker just announced that voters 70 and older could skip the line," he tweeted. "The woman in front of me qualified but said she would wait with everyone else. 'I’m just glad to see a line this long to vote.'"

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