Election Day Voters Find Short Waits at Polls

Election administrators expected a record number of voters to cast ballots Tuesday, but the crowds didn't show at most Dallas County locations.

Dallas County elections officials said lines were very short at almost every polling place because most voters expected long lines on Election Day and voted early.

First-time voter Deonna Anderson, 22, prepared for the worst-case scenario when she went to vote.

"I took half a day off of work so I could stand in line," she said.

Anderson said voting took her "about five minutes."

"It's my first time," she said. "Hopefully, it'll make a difference."

Lines were nonexistent at one usually busy polling place in South Dallas.

"It took me actually longer for him to find me on the list than it did for me to actually go to the booth and vote," voter Mary Cornelius said.

She said the poll had more poll workers than voters.

Dallas County election administrator Bruce Sherbet said all the county's precincts prepared for a large number of last-minute voters hadn't materialized as of early Tuesday evening.

"Voting is going steady but not very heavy today at any location that I've been told, so we've had a lower turnout than we had hoped for," he said.

Sherbet said the election season has been successful overall.

He said county's record number of early voters is the reason for the short lines on Election Day.

"I think 60 percent of the overall voter turnout is going to be early voting, and that will be an all-time record, because the last time -- four years ago -- early voting was 50 percent of the turnout," Sherbet said.

Anderson said she wants to be able to tell her children she made a difference by voting.

"Each vote counts," she said.