FROM THE POLLS: Stories by our roving reporters and you

4:30 p.m. Stratmoor Hills Volunteer Fire Department on B Street across from Showgirls lounge and down the road from Fort Carson
Sgt. Edward Arnold, a five-year veteran who has served in Iraq, shares his views.

"I look at it from a veteran's point of view. Right now I feel like Obama is the guy to help the soldiers out. I feel more comfortable with him leading us as we go out and fight."

For now, he got his walking papers from the polls. "I'm in the wrong precinct," he says, and heads to the right place.

3:30 p.m.: At Covenant Presbyterian Church, in Briargate, tTwo poll watchers – one in the polling place and one in the parking lot – from the Obama campaign are looking on at Precinct 296, which the campaign sees as a bellwether for how El Paso County will vote.

Obama volunteer Elizabeth Leslie, of Colorado Springs, said the precinct reported higher turnout by 1 p.m. than they were hoping for the entire day. She interprets that as a good sign for her candidate.

“We are in a Republican stronghold, and we have made what I would call pretty good strides for this campaign,” Leslie said.

Voting has been smooth, as far as she can tell.

“Our poll’s doing really well,” Leslie said. “We haven’t had any problems. We’ve had laughter and kids dancing (while their parents vote.)

“I want everybody to come out and vote today, whether they agree with me or not.”

The polling place, which serves two precincts, hasn’t seen long lines since 8:15 this morning.

2 p.m.: At the Broadmoor Community Church, where a few voters go in and out about every 15 minutes, there’s more than one Lexus in the half-empty parking lot.

But the no-nonsense minivan belongs to Judy Yeoman, a 47-year-old stay-at-home mom with a degree in economics.

She purposely waited until the last voting day to better gauge the issues.

“I think positive change is afoot no matter who is elected,” she says. “I think the American people are paying attention now. They are looking for responsibility from the elected officials and from people in leadership positions."

1:45 p.m.: Alex Mueller, 18, voted for the first time on Tuesday at the Chapel Hills Baptist Church, in Briargate.

“Well, besides getting out of bed, it was alright,” Mueller said. “I know that I can change stuff. I can do something for the future.”

By the time Mueller got to the polls, there was no line to vote. But earlier in the day there were long lines.

“There was a voter outside at 5:30 a.m. when I pulled up,” said election judge Lania Bryant. The big rush came from 7-9 a.m., when the line snaked into the parking lot, she said. And it’s been a steady crowd since then.

First-time voters such as Alex Mueller are expected to play a key role in today’s election, and to turn out in record numbers. His mother Heather Mueller has four boys, and she said three of them are first-time voters today.

“It’s been pretty exciting all the way around,” she said. “I just pray that whatever happens will be the best for the country.”

1:45 p.m.: Robert Heydorn got door-to-door service at Sand Creek High School, but ran into a mail-in ballot mix-up that nearly had him running clear across town to vote.

Heydorn, who uses a cane to get around, got a lift on a cart from the parking lot, which he appreciated. But once inside, he was told that all those like him who hadn't received a requested mail-in ballot would have to go downtown to Centennial Hall to cast a provisional ballot. As he was leaving, a poll worker corrected that, saying he could cast a provisional ballot at Sand Creek.

Heydorn said he was told others weren't as lucky. Of the 100 or so voters that had been ahead of him, 10 had not received mail-in ballots and been sent to Centennial Hall.

1 p.m. : El Paso County’s voter-turnout seemed destined to set records, the county’s top election official said.

Clerk and Recorder Bob Balink said 60,000 people had already been to the polls, and thousands more are expected with six hours of voting left.

With early voting, mail-in ballots and the turnout at polls, 227,000 people had voted by 1 p.m. That left Balink confident that enough ballots will be cast to eclipse the 2004 record of 242,000 voters. The number has already passed the 2000 mark of 201,000 ballots.

Balink said there had been minor glitches at some polling sites Tuesday, but said overall things were running smoothly.

“We’re having the typical small problems, but we’re dealing with every issue,” Balink said.

Noon: There's no waiting at the Town Hall in Manitou Springs. Not now, that is. About 60 people waited when the door's opened.

"We had a mob scene," says Kathy Bohanon, election judge.

The action now is at the provisional ballot table.

"There's a high number of provisional ballots here and there seems to be a pattern county wide," says election worker Mark Johnson.

Other voters breezed in and out.

"I love voting here," says Stephen Wood, a 46-year-old public art facilitator. "You get to see people you know. It's kind of a ritual."

"My main concern is that the winner pulls ahead by a significantly large margin so that the possibilities for vote theft have been removed," says Wood.

11:16 a.m. Cable network CNN, which for weeks has been urging viewers to report voting problems on a hotline telephone number, reported getting 60 calls from El Paso County voters on its Web site CNN.com. The network reported getting more than 360 calls from Colorado voters by mid-morning, most upset over absentee ballot issues or voter registration problems.

In comparison, New York voters had registers more than 2,400 complaints on the hotline and Florida voters had made nearly 2,600 calls.

11:15 a.m. Democratic state House District 17 candidate Dennis Apuan got a provisional ballot at his Panorama Middle School polling place this morning to replace one he never received in the mail. But, while checking off his slate of candidates, Apuan realized something was horribly wrong.

"I realized I could not vote for myself because I was handed a ballot for House District 19," Apuan said.

Worse, when the candidate argued that he should, after all, be able to vote for himself on Election Day, the election workers were initially unhelpful.

"They said ‘This is the only ballot we have, sir'," Apuan said.

Eventually, the election workers figured it out and the Democrat was able to check off his own name. But Apuan remained livid.

"How is it that as a candidate I could not vote for myself?"

10:20 a.m. Sports copy editor Angie DiSalvo reports that Rogers Elementary on South Circle didn't even have a line when she went from about 9:15-10 a.m. "I used the touch-screen ballot so I had to wait 15 minutes just to get to the only unit they had. I also had to have someone look up my precinct, but was still out of there in about 30 minutes. Other people were in and out in less than 10 if they used the regular paper ballot."

10:11 a.m. Voter Dale Schauer waited until today to vote. "I typically enjoy the process of the day," he says. "It think it is very exciting, especially given the fact it's so close."

He describes himself as "pretty El Paso County Republican."

Politics creeps into Schauer's work this time of year when dealing with "mixed" couples- he's a marriage counselor.

"There's some conflict in the marriage, for sure, if one's for Obama and one's for McCain it becomes a problem. And I try to stay out of that. I just have them communicate well and stay in love."

Some were first-time voters:

"It went good," said Courtney Duren, 22, a cosmetics worker at Chapel Hills Mall. She didn't vote in the last presidential election. "I was 18 then and didn't really care."

9:42 a.m. Public affairs editor Joel Millman reports that things are smooth at his polling place at Columbia Elementary School, where he was in and out in less than 10 minutes. "It was probably better than early voting," he said. "I'm glad I waited."

9 a.m. Pikes Peak Community College Rampart Range campus in the shadows of New Life Church on the city's north side.

Gazette reporter Andrea Brown and photographer Christian Murdock have been booted from inside the polls. It's a new election rule, we are told.

The voters use a separate entrance from the students.

It's about an hour in-and-out time, most people say.

Many head to work with "I voted" stickers.

"I'm Suzy the innkeeper," says Susan Redden, owner of a Black Forest bed and breakfast. "I'm in solidarity with Joe the Plumber."

She has on red Crocs, bib overalls and a red-white-and-blue hat.

"My election hat," she says. "This is my day. I've been paying attention since it was Nixon. I'm a single working mom with a high school education. If I can do it anybody can do it. You just have to bust your butt."

7:10 a.m. Reporter Andrea Brown is at Woodmen-Roberts Elementary School, in an affluent section of northwest Colorado Springs.

Many of the cars illegally parked along the road sport McCain/Palin stickers.

Inside the polls, which covers several precincts, it's busy but organized, with about 100 people, most of them white and dressed for work, in various stages of voting.

David and Cynda Baldini emerge, relieved.

"I'm glad it's over," Cynda says.

"Same," says David. "We've been inundated with the media. We got here at 6:30, and there were probably 7 or 10 people ahead of us. I tried to vote two times at the mall but it was too crowded. This was easy."

Jacque Law, a middle-school teacher, arrived about 10 minutes before the polls opened.

"The line looked daunting but it went smoothly and quickly and everyone was remarking on that," she says.

She says Obama reflects the values of her family.

"Our kids are African-American," says Law, who is white. "I'm a complete Barack Obama person. We've had our yard signs up and they were stolen many times and we keep replacing them. It's all McCain and then there's ours with Obama. We just want to bring some balance to the neighborhood."

YOUR VOICES

From Susie Pomeroy: My husband and I voted about 10:15 at Precinct 278 at Chipeta Elementary and didn't have to wait at all. Everything went very smoothly. There were more people voting than normal but no lines.

From Ginger Littleton: My daughter had applied for a mail-in ballot on Aug 28th. When she did not receive it in Washington D.C. in 3 weeks, she called and the County Clerk said they would send another and negate the first.

When she did not receive it in a week and a half, she called and they checked and said oops! they had not sent it.

Her ballot finally arrived on Friday, Oct. 31st. She had to spend $16.00 to mail it back to Colorado in time for the 7 pm deadline today.

Have others been messed up like this?

Is the County Clerk's office swamped or inefficient?

Should you have to pay $16 to vote?

From Thomas J. Garrison: Voted at Emerson Elementary School, and was in and out in 30 minutes.

From Christina Stewart: I have been a registered Colorado voter since 2000. I have voted in every election, including this years primaries. I received a voter registration card in the mail a few months ago, yet, when I got there today, they didn't have me listed. I had to fill out a provisional ballot. How do I know it will get counted? What about the people that did mail ins that this happened to? Will their votes get cancelled and they won't even know it? I'm a registered Republican.

From Melody Rieben: Just wanted to comment on the voting at Columbia School, District 11. I had the most respectful,and the most enjoyable time voting this year, everyone was so respectful, and the time it took to vote was very good, we could have used more pens, but all in all things went smooth. Thanks alot for the time Gazette and letting me post.

From our Election Day questionnaire:

-Voted before 8 a.m. at Lincoln School in less than 10 minutes. Comments: Fast and friendly. The machine that accepts paper ballots did not work. Had to insert ballot in manual slot on side.

-Voted between 8 and 9 a.m. at Fox Meadow Middle School with no wait. Comments: Volunteer election workers were very positive, friendly, and helpful. There are never lines at this location - which unfortunately speaks to the sad state of my neighborhood. Not enough booths merely because the ballot was way too long.

-Voted before 8 a.m. at Village Seven Presbyterian Church and waited 10-20 minutes. Comments: Workers seemed a bit unorganized and couldn't initially find my name, though I have been registered for years in the same precinct. I had a few moments of anxiety, but they did locate me and I voted via touch screen, verified that my votes were recorded correctly. People seemed to be excited as we chatted that no matter what the outcome of the presidential election.. the outcome will be historic- with either our first African American president or female vice president. Great experience to see the high turnout!!

-Voted between 8 and 9 a.m. at Explorer Elementary School in Briargate. Comments: I voted early, but checked out the lines when I took my youngest to school. EES is a polling place for three precincts, so the crowd is roughly 3x larger than at any single precinct. The line extended out the EES gym and into the main hallway a little bit. Didn't look too bad.

-Voted before 8 a.m. at Jackson Elementary School and waited 50-60 minutes. Comments: There was a line going into the school gymnasium through a single door and once inside the line split into the three precincts. However, there was a lot of confusion because many of the people in line did not know which precinct they belonged in. The only person with the means to look it up was on the other side of the gym so these people had to get out of line, stand in line to find out which line to be in and then attempt to find the end of the appropriate line. When voter traffic is light, it will not be a significant problem, but when it is crowded like it was at 7:00, it is chaos.

-Voted before 8 a.m. at Colorado Springs Senior Center and waited 20-30 minutes. Comments: With Precinct 14 and 15 both sharing the same polling-booth space, Precinct 14 was backed up out their 'in' door while Precinct 15's 'in' door had no line. Sure, there were more 14 voters there, but why wasn't this setup to let the precincts help each other handle the overflow? I waited in line for 30 minutes and watched P15 people come in and out of the same polling place I was using. frustrating...

-Voted between 8 and 9 a.m. in Calhan in less than 10 minutes. Comments: Quick, easy, organized, and, dare I say it, FUN!

-Voted before 8 a.m. at Sand Creek High School with no wait. Comments: Pretty smooth and easy. We used paper ballots because the touch screens were down. I am a first time voter and I didn't see anything that was amiss or problematic. Good job Sand Creek High Voting Staff.

-Voted between 8 and 9 a.m. at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church (Galley/Wooten) in less than 10 minutes. Comments: Smooth. But I expect problems later today. Big problems. They only have one electronic machine, and maybe 6 paper ballot booths. This for a polling place serving TWO precincts. I anticipate a huge wait later this afternoon as people get off of work and go to vote.

-Voted before 8 a.m. at Oak Creek Elementary in less than 10 minutes. Comments: You better know your voting precinct # or it will cause delays! Also there were not enough voting booths and only one electronic voting machine! I look forward to the day when we have Online Voting!

-Voted between 8 and 9 a.m. at Oak Creek Elementary. Comments: No wait fast, walk up and vote.

-I was in line at 7 AM at Hillside Community Center. There were about 150 people in line ahead of me, so it took me about 45 minutes to get to the first table. Once there, it turns out that there were three lines by precinct, but if you didn't know your precinct, they had no way to look it up without getting OUT of line, getting into another line with 100 people, and then getting BACK into the original line again. Very disorganized, so I left. The person with the master list should have been at the VERY first table that people came to, in order to make things move more smoothly. Expecting all those people to know the right precinct was really shortsighted.

-Voted before 8 a.m. at the church at Jamboree and Parliament Dr. in 40-50 minutes. Comments: Took a long time, the election judges were inexperienced and not helpful, and lines for specific precincts were not marked, making it take longer due to standing in the wrong line

-Voted between 9 and 10 a.m. at Pioneer Elementary with no wait. Comments: Painless..took less than 5 minutes..did my research beforehand...had all my answers written down..just filled in the bubbles.

-Went before 8 a.m. to Chapel Hills Mall for Mail-In Ballot Drop-Off. No wait. Comments: Second election I have done the mail-in ballot. The last presidential election, I voted in person, and it took about an hour. This time through, I wanted to save the postage, so I dropped my Mail-In ballot off in person on the way into work. The site at Chapel Hills Mall was staffed by military, and were very nice and quick at the drive-up dropoff. Could have not gone any smoother or quicker.

-Voted between 10 and 11 a.m. at Stetson Hills Church west of powers. Comments: No wait bing, bam, boom, no lines & no wait. I selected touch screen which was fast & easy with large enough font I didn't need my readers.

-Voted between 8 and 9 a.m. at Grace Bible Study. Comments: No wait

-Voted between 10 and 11 a.m. at Frontier Elementary. Comments: No wait No problems and this school represented four precincts

-Voted between 10 and 11 a.m. at the Library on 8th St. No wait.

-Voted between 8 and 9 a.m. Meridian Ranch Elementary and waited more than an hour. Comments: Only 1 line to check in voters. Workers refused suggestion to "split" book to handle more voters at once. Had 11 stations for paper ballots and 1 electronic machine and only 3-4 using booths at one time due to bottleneck at check in. Hundreds of people in line. Some people left because they didn't want to wait. Unbelievable.

-Voted before 8 a.m. Gateway Church on Marksheffel more than an hour I waited for an hour in a line just to find out what my precint was and after that I had to stand in another line for 2 hours to get my ballot. Here was three lines and only one person servicing each line while 7 volunteers weren't doing anything and was sitting around chatting.

-Voted between 9 and 10 a.m. on Woodmen. Comments: No wait Very few people - maybe 20. Open booths and zero wait. Those that were there were pretty much talking about Obama but not about serious issues. Mostly chatter about tax rebates.

-Voted between 10 and 11 a.m. Frontier Elementary, District 20, and waited 10-20 minutes. Everything went smooth. This was my first time voting, and I was pleased to find how easy and relaxed it was!

-Voted before 8 a.m. at Webster Elementary School in Widefield and waited 10-20 minutes. Comments: Everyone was pretty jovial, except for two of the workers who were snippy with each other. This was at 7:15 am, so hopefully they were able to change their attitudes and work together better, or else it's going to be a very loooooong day for both of them!

-Voted between 10 and 11 a.m. at Black Forest Lutheran with no wait. Comments: Plenty of parking and no wait to vote. I walked in, checked in and voted...just like that! No wait, no line, no fuss.

-Voted between 8 and 9 a.m. at Russell Middle School in 10-20 minutes. Comments: Very organized and friendly volunteers! Probably the easiest voting process I've ever experienced.

-Voted between 10 and 11 a.m. at Falcon Middle School in less than 10 minutes. Comments: We were told that there was a 40 minute wait for touch screen voting. We opted for traditional paper ballots. There was a short line at our precinct table - maybe 3 minutes. The other two precinct tables had no lines.

-Voted between 10 and 11 a.m. at Precinct 245 at Faith Covenant Church on Barnes Road. Comments: No wait. Walked in, signed the card and voted on paper ballot. There were two or three people waiting for the single touch-screen voting machine. Was in and out in less than 10 minutes.

-Voted before 8 a.m. at Skyview Middle School in more than an hour. Comments: Very long line! The election judges for Pct. 315 were slow, but thorough. Ballot maching wouldn't take my paper ballot, had to resort to the alternate method. (Silding it into the side slot, where I was assured it would be inserted into the machine once it was functional.) Folks in line were courteous, as were the election workers.

-Voted between 9 and 10 a.m. at Fox Middle School. Comments: No wait No waiting at all at my polling place! Congestion at the polls seems to be more media created than my experience.

-Voted between 10 and 11 a.m. at Cragmor Christian Reformed Church off Mt. View/Acacia in the Cragmor neighborhood in
less than 10 minutes. Comments: I love my polling place. There is never a line if you go mid morning or mid afternoon. There was one lady in front of me and took about 5 minutes to get her going since she did not speak good english. I did the paper ballot and got right in and out. I noticed we only had one electronic machine which had a line about 5 people deep and seemed to take longer. I decided not to do electronic primarily because I figured I would get stuck behind the slow poke who couldn't figure it out or who hadn't read all the amendments , etc. beforehand! All in all a good experience and the energy felt great in the room.

-Voted between 9 and 10 a.m. at Gateway Church- (Marksheffel and Stetson Hills) and waited for more than an hour. Comments: I arrived at 7:20am and chose a line to stand in only to find out that the lines were seperated into precincts (there was no sign to indicate this) A lady came out of the church after I had been standing in line for approximately 5 minutes and told us that we needed to be in the correct line. Since I did not know my precinct # I was required to go to another line 1st to find that info. It took about 1/2 hour to get this info at which time I went back to the original lines. There were only about 50-75 people ahead of me, but it took 2 hours to get to the area where the ballots were being given out. I observed empty voting booths during this time and a line stretching across the parking lot. It seems that the people distributing the ballots were soooo slow that they could not keep the voting booths full!! I saw one couple leave.

-Voted between 8 and 9 a.m. at Janitell Middle School in 50-60 minutes. Comments: The line was long but I enjoyed some friendly discussions with other voters. The election workers were very professional and were managing the long lines very efficiently. They were bringing out chairs for the people who may be uncomfortable standing for that long. Good neighbors!

-Voted before 8 a.m. at Edison School on North Hancock in more than an hour. Comments: The line was not so bad when I walked in and moved continuously until I got right up to the front and they started pulling people from the line for 2 other precincts. My precinct was 46 and I was told that was the largest and caused the hold up. It took about 40 minutes once I could see in the door to the ballot tables to get my ballot and vote.

-Voted before 8 a.m. at Jefferson Elementary in 40-50 minutes.

-Voted before 8 a.m. in Falcon in 50-60 minutes. Comments: It was COLD waiting outside to get into the school!

-Voted before 8 a.m. at Doherty High School in less than 10 minutes. Comments:I showed up just before the polls opened and there were approximately 50 people waiting in line. There were 2 precincts and my wait was about 10 minutes. From the time I stood in line to the time I left the polls was about 15 minutes or a little more.

-Voted between 9 and 10 a.m. at Roberts Elementary on Woodmen. Comments: No wait, in and out in less than 5 minutes. Looked like any other election as far as turnout. Only about a dozen people there. More workers than voters really. No problems.

-Voted between 1 and 2 p.m. at Antelope Trails Elementary. Comments: No wait The people were friendly and the lack of a wait was great!

-Voted before 8 a.m. at Doherty High School in less than 10 minutes. Comments: I am glad that I waited until election day...I didn't have to wait for 3 hours like the early voters had to.

-Voted between 10 and 11 a.m. at Holmes Middle School. Comments: No wait all went well