High turnout floods polling places

Lines stretched around buildings and out onto sidewalks Tuesday
as record numbers of voters waited for as long as two hours at
polling locations on and off campus.

The apparent high voter turnouts around campus reflected the
estimated large percentage of voter turnout throughout the
country.

People brought their dogs, their books and one student even
brought a laptop with a wireless Internet connection to get the
latest election news as they waited for their turns to cast their
ballots.

“We definitely did not expect such a high turnout,”
said Lorin Speltz, a poll worker at 515 Landfair Ave.

Christina Jimenez, a third-year student and poll worker, worried
about turning away some voters because they were running out of
ballots, and said they might have to start using the example
ballots, as the L.A. County warehouse was also out of ballots.

“It’s been an incredible turnout,” Jimenez
added.

Even at the 8 p.m. poll closing time, the lines remained long,
and many students waited while Jimenez and other poll workers, who
had been working since 7 a.m., went down the line recording
everyone who had made it to the polls in time.

At 7:20 p.m., poll workers at 10918 Strathmore Ave. reported
that they only had 150 ballots left.

On campus, the waits were even longer. Allie Burton, a
second-year undeclared student, waited two hours to take her turn
at one of six De Neve Plaza polling booths, saying, “This is
ridiculous. I don’t think it’s the location, I think no
one was anticipating this high of a voter turnout.”

Though overall turnout is estimated as the highest ever, the
youth vote, which was expected to grab a higher proportion of the
national total this year, remained proportionally stagnant compared
to the 2000 election, with only 17 percent of voters between the
ages of 18 and 29.

The Los Angeles Office of the Registrar-Recorder and County
Clerk reported that by 5 p.m. Tuesday, 57.82 percent of registered
voters had already cast their ballots, in comparison with the 48.87
percent who had voted at the same time in 2000.

This represents an almost 10 percent increase from 2000, one
that may even grow larger given the amount of late voters.

Regarding the turnout, James Hahn, mayor of Los Angeles, said he
was “very proud of Los Angeles.”

Election officials had predicted a nationwide turnout of 117.5
million to 121 million people, the highest turnout in history
““ rivaling the 1960 election in which 73 percent of eligible
voters went to the polls. With nearly all precincts reporting,
these estimates seem to have held true.

The Committee for the Study of the American Electorate predicted
voter registration would likely hit 71 percent this election,
compared with 68 percent in 2000.

Though the high turnout certainly shows an unprecedented
nationwide interest in politics, young people remain
underrepresented overall.

With reports from Bruin wire services and Jed Levine, Zahra
Bazmjo, Bruin contributors.

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