WASHINGTON — The line of voters stretched one and a half blocks, and some people waited an hour in order to be among the first in the District to cast a vote in the general election.
Early voting began Saturday in D.C. at a single polling place, One Judiciary Square Northwest, where voters from all eight wards could vote.
“I think this election cycle has been one of the craziest I have ever seen so I wanted to get out here and make sure my vote counts,” said Farrah Saint-Surin.
Mayor Muriel Bowser said the display of voter enthusiasm was fantastic. “I think people may be feeling like I was feeling. Bowser said. “After this long presidential process, after these debates, I wanted to vote the first chance I got.”
The Bowser rallied the crowd for fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton for the presidency, and she urged voters to approve the referendum to petition Congress to admit D.C. as the nation’s 51st state.
“We want two senators just like every other American,” Bowser told voters.
Many of the voters waiting in the line shrugged off the wait time, insisting they were fulfilling a critical function for their nation.
“Voting is the basic lock pin of democracy. That’s what keeps America such a great country,” said Paul Banks, a retired printer from the U.S. Government Publishing Office.
“Waiting in a long, long line is not bad because some people for four hundred years didn’t vote,” he said.
The polling place at Judiciary Square will be open each day from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. until Nov. 4. Polling places will open in the city’s other seven wards on Friday and will remain open from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Nov. 4.
In Maryland early voting is scheduled to begin Thursday.
Voters in Virginia have been early voting since Sept. 23. Voting officials said the turnout has been robust and well above the early voting levels of 2012.
