Mailbag: As Day Gets Long, So Do Lines In Pensacola

We want your stories! What was your voting experience like? What interactions have you had with the campaigns? Are you volunteering for a candidate? Have you received any last minute robocalls or campaign mail? Let us know what's happening in your neck of the woods: email hufftips@gmail.com

Lisa from Pensacola, FL writes:

On Saturday, November 1, 2008, my husband and I took our kids (3 and 5) with us to the local branch of the library to vote early. The library polling place opened at 8:30. We arrived at 9:30 a.m. Now, for the last two weeks here in Pensacola every time I drove by the Lucia M. Tryon branch library I would see a line from the door to around the building with people waiting in line to vote. This past Saturday was no different. We waited about 35 minutes. Everyone was in good spirits and polite. The people working the polling site were very professional, well coordinated, and quick. By the time I received my ballot to when I turned it in was under 5 minutes as I had my sample ballot with me already filled out.

That was not the best part though. My family and I went to our friends' house that night for a Halloween party. We drove by the Tryon Branch library again at around 7:00 p.m. and the line was still as long if not longer! According to our local paper, the Pensacola News Journal, they expected 90,000 people to have voted early in Escambia County Florida, which left about another 100,000 left to vote on Tuesday. That is phenomenal!