BALTIMORE — As Election Day got underway in the Baltimore region, local election officials said they were seeing good turnout and no serious issues.
Baltimore County was seeing lines, "because the voter turnout is high... The turnout has been steady," said Ruie Lavoie, the county's elections director. "The few obstacles we had, we were able to handle right away."
She said there were some election judges who didn't show up for service, and the county needed to find reinforcements.
As the area's largest jurisdiction - and the third largest in the state - Baltimore County has 243 polling sites and has about 5,000 people who make the election happen, she said.
"Unfortunately, some of the poll workers were late or didn't show up to work," Lavoie said, noting the same thing happened during the primary.
She said the polling sites had lines right when they opened at 7 a.m.
Armstead Jones, elections director for Baltimore City, said the city also had "no serious issues, thank goodness" although there were "some hiccups."
Regarding poll workers, he said they had 3,000 people, "so we had enough."
Other local counties - Anne Arundel, Harford, Carroll and Howard - also reported that everything was going smoothly, as of about noon.
"People are showing up, which is great," said Harford County's elections director Stephanie Taylor.
The county had 24,079 people vote as of 11 a.m., she said.
Anne Arundel County's deputy director Richard Siejack also said a lot of voters showed up at the same time this morning.
"Turnout is very brisk... That's actually a good thing. We don't shy away from long lines," he said. "Everything is moving smoothly."
Anne Arundel County reported more than 30,000 voters as of about noon, he said.
Election directors in Carroll and Howard counties - Erin Perrone and Guy Mickley, respectively - likewise said there were no major issues.
"Some polling places have lines but nothing that we didn't anticipate," said Perrone, adding that they had 16,699 voters checked in as of 11 a.m. and all the voting sites opened on time.
Mickley said, in Howard: "Right off the bat in the morning, it was pretty heavy."
That slowed down to "a steady trickle."
Howard had 25,222 that voted as of 11 a.m.
