NK Coming Out in Droves to Vote

.

Voter turnout has been strong in North Kingstown this morning since polls opened at 7 a.m. 

At Davisville Middle School, about 50 people were waiting outside around 11 a.m. today waiting to get inside the building to vote. Once inside, another 30 (or more) people were waiting in line to cast their ballot.

"I waited about 45 minutes before I voted," said Evan Charello.

According to Bill Maccarone (a campaign worker for Steve Campo), "Quite a few people saw the line and turned around." Earlier this morning, one of the voting machines at the school went down, which caused further delays, said poll worker Richard August.

Though voter turnout is always higher during a presidential election year, the long waits are exacerbated by the reduction of two polling locations this year. 

At Cold Spring Community Center, about 814 ballots had been cast prior to noon today. 

One of those votes was Dona Giglio of North Kingstown who, while waiting in line for an hour, taped a dollar bill to her mouth in protest of the "gluttonous amount of money spent on American politics."

"This is busier than past presidential elections," said Ray Wertz, the poll moderator at Cold Spring.

This year's ballot is two sheets, but according to Wertz many voters aren't filling out the second sheet – which contains this year's local questions. 

"A lot of people aren't filling them out because they don't know enough about the issues," said Wertz. 

(Click here to see this year's local and state questions.)

Though quite a few voters in line waiting to cast their ballots complained about the delays at several locations, others were content to wait. At Cold Spring, one woman accidentally arrived at the polls an hour early at 6 a.m. Rather than leaving and returning later, the woman quietly waited until poll workers set up the machines and organized the ballots before her location opened.

According to Karla Driscoll, who stopped by both Cold Spring and Hamilton Elementary School before polls opened. She said that each location had "easily 50 people waiting in line at each" before 7 a.m.

"It was a wonderful sight to see," said Driscoll.

Polls close tonight at 8 p.m.