‘I GET TO BE A PART OF HISTORY’
Election officials are expecting record turnout today, according to the Asbury Park Press.
Here’s what redbankgreen found in the first hour of voting activity in Red Bank this morning:
6:00a: More than a dozen voters stand in line in the predawn darkness outside the 6th district polling station at the Calvary Baptist Church on Bridge Avenue (above).
After voting, Linda Vega tells redbankgreen that she’s not usually up and about so early.
“I’m excited,” she says. “I get to be a part of history.”
6:10a Another line, this one at the Red bank Senior Center on Shrewsbury Avenue, home of the 8th district voting station (above).
Rudy Howard tells redbankgreen that he’s just voted for the first time in his life, at age 58. “I’m just excited,” he says.
6:20a After an initial burst, the 5th district station at the Trinity Episcopal Church on West Front Street has already had more than 20 voters, compared to a daylong total of 50 to 60 in the last general election, poll workers say.
They’re looking forward to the customary arrival by bus of seniors some of them well into their nineties from Navesink Harbor assisted living facility.
6:30a A steady stream of voters flows through the 3rd and 7th-district station at the First Aid Squad on Spring Street, above.
6:45a The 4th district station has also already seen half as many voters as in all of the last general election, poll workers at the United Methodist Church polling place on Broad Street say.
“It’s going to be a history-making election, of course,” says Hudson Avenue resident Lee Sanderson after casting his vote. “Maybe we’ll take the country in a new direction.”