Boards of Elections across South Jersey were reporting larger than normal voter turnout today.
"We're so busy it's ridiculous," said Peggy Butler, the Salem County Board of Elections registrar.
That was the consensus among elections officials in Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland counties. The Camden County elections board couldn't be reached because the phone was constantly busy throughout the late morning and afternoon.
People were waiting in line to vote in districts throughout Cape May County, a first in the county's history, said Joy Erb, the elections board's registrar.
"This seems to be double what we got for past presidential elections," said Nancy Sungenis, a commissioner for the Cumberland County Board of Elections. "We heard reports of people getting in line to vote before polls opened. That's very unusual for us."
"We've had to truck provisional ballots to polling places that ran out of them," said Paula Dunn, secretary for the Atlantic County elections board. "Those workers who dropped off the ballots are coming back and telling us they saw lines of voters and very busy polling places."
Despite the crush of voters, election officials reported only minimal voting machine problems and normal voter issues.
"It's mainly people trying to find out where they have to go to vote," Sungenis said.