http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/azelections/articles/2008/11/01/20081101earlyvoting1101.htmlVoters expecting to cast quick ballots at early-voting sites across the Valley on Friday found lines stretching hundreds of feet and waits as long as six hours.
But the inconvenience could foreshadow one of the largest voter turnouts in Arizona history.
"This is unreal," said Carter Ellis, 61, of Chandler, as he voted at the Tempe Public Library. "I hope people don't feel defeated when they see the lines."
Sites in Mesa, Glendale, Phoenix and Tempe that just a week ago were largely empty were overrun Friday, the final day of early voting.
Around 11 a.m., the sidewalk in front of the Maricopa County Elections Department in Mesa was dotted with plastic patio furniture and camping chairs as voters waited in a line stretching about 500 feet.
It took some voters six hours to cast a ballot at the Tempe library, where overwhelmed elections officials handed out numbers at the entrance. Voters then waited several hours for their names to be called, then at least two more hours to access one of seven voting booths.
"At least it's in a library," said Dawson Rauch, 19, of Tempe. "There could be worse places to wait."
The lines Friday weren't limited to the Valley, with voters at the University of Arizona bookstore in Tucson waiting 2 1/2 hours to cast a ballot.
Maricopa County elections spokeswoman Yvonne Reed said that lines aren't unusual on the last day of early voting but that waiting times were probably longer because of speculation about large crowds on Tuesday.
County officials project a turnout of 80 to 85 percent on Tuesday, one of the highest in the county's history. The Secretary of State's Office expects an 80 percent turnout statewide, which would match turnout in 1980, when Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter. That was the highest turnout, according to state electronic records, which go back to 1976. Statewide turnout was 60.5 percent in 2006 and 77 percent in 2004, the previous presidential election.
National experts point to a high number of early-ballot requests in predicting the highest voter turnout in decades.
Michael McDonald, a political scientist at George Mason University who specializes in voting patterns, predicts the highest turnout in a century. "We're going to definitely beat the turnout rate in 2004. The question is by how much," McDonald said. "It's not just an election of a generation, it's an election of generations with an 's.' "
Reed said 827,380 Maricopa County residents had requested absentee ballots or had voted early as of 2 p.m. Friday. The county has seen 566,656, or 68.4 percent, of those ballots returned. There are about 1.7 million registered voters in the county.
Early ballots figure to create a significant delay in the compilation of final results. Officials expect that about 200,000 early ballots won't be marked or mailed early but instead will be walked into a polling place or will arrive via mail on Election Day.
Those ballots won't be processed until two days after the election, Reed said, and Maricopa County hopes to have all of them compiled by Nov. 21.
Lines on Friday eased as the day wore on, with waiting times dropping to 90 minutes in Phoenix and an hour in Mesa.
"It was well worth it," Yvette Sims of Gilbert said outside the Mesa voting site. "I think we have a great country and all have a responsibility to vote, whether we agree on the issues or not."
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