Voters stay in line at the voting precinct at Mini City Hall, at 701 N. 25th St., where more than 3,500 had voted by 2 p.m., says election officer John Gerner. Despite the precinct’s overwhelmingly Democratic base, Gerner reports no tension.

“No, it was one of those things where I actually thought we might have more people making an issue out of it but not really,” he says. “I think everyone wants the process to go smoothly. They don’t want something where things will slow everyone down.”

Malou Rawls, a Democratic Party volunteer, was in front of the polling place handing out sample ballots.

“I’m actually passing these out for Bill Pantele, he’s running for mayor,” says Rawls. “I went to his headquarters after I worked for Obama this morning.”

The turnout was diverse, says precinct worker Jennifer Dodge.

“It’s very Democratic. … There’s definitely a large numbers of African Americans that come here but it’s very diverse," Rawls says. There’s a lot of youths coming in and a very large number of middle-aged people coming in who’s never voted before so that was exciting." -- Alexander Chang