Voting Lines Thin An Hour Before Polls Close

With less an hour until the polls close, most polling places are showing small or no lines in St. Petersburg. 

There were virtually no wait times at the Coliseum, the Dwight H. Jones Neighborhood Center and the Westminster Presbyterian Church around 5 p.m. That wasn't the case at Sunken Garden, which had about a 30-minute wait around 5:30 p.m.

Gene Webb, who blogs on Patch, said he did an afternoon tour of polling places and saw much of the same:

A tour of St. Pete Polling places between 2:30 and 4:00 revealed short or no lines at all Polling places except 1. The Polling location at Sunken Gardens had a long line extending all the way back to Carrabas.

Poll workers all provided the following information: 
• There were long lines waiting for the Polls to open 
• The lines were all basically gone by around noon 
• There were more young people voting than any of the Poll workers had ever seen before 
• Every Polling location indicated they had far exceeded any total of voters in the past.

Earlier this afternoon, the Pinellas Supervisor of Elections said between in-person voting and early voting, turnout was more than 60 percent. 

"As of 2 p.m. Election Day, it is estimated that 17.42% of eligible voters have cast their votes at the polls today," the office wrote on its Facebook page. "Added to a 44% return by mail-in ballots and early voting, the total return so far is 61%."