Prospective voters in Denver met long lines at the city’s six vote-center sites as residents made a late rush for early voting Friday.
While wait times at many of the vote centers have been only a few minutes in previous days, lines snaked out of some buildings and lasted longer than an hour at times on Friday, the last day for early voting.
At the District 3 police station on University Boulevard, voters were consistently waiting just shy of two hours to get to polls at midday.
“This is helping America vote?” asked Martha Ryan – referencing the federal Help America Vote Act – as she waited in line. “What a mess.”
Some left the line without voting.
But Mike Romano, 51, said his hour- and-20-minute wait at the Wellington Webb Municipal Building was “a small price to pay.”
“It’s the cost of voting,” he said.
Denver Election Commission spokesman Alton Dillard said the long ballot and a late rush on the six early voting centers caused the delay. But he said “it should not be interpreted as a bad omen for Tuesday.”
“We are getting a late rush, but on Election Day there will be 55 locations citywide,” Dillard said.
Colorado Common Cause executive director Jenny Flanagan said voters should be prepared and smart on Election Day, “but you should still vote.”
“Usually if there is a problem, it gets resolved in about 15 minutes.”
