Hampton University students wait hours to vote at overwhelmed precinct

Hampton University students crowded into the Phoebus High School polling location in Hampton on Tuesday to complete their same day voter registration and cast provisional ballots.

The students arrived in university shuttles, which were dropping students off every hour starting at 9 a.m., according to a flyer produced by HU's Office of Student Involvement and Leadership. The students overwhelmed the precinct, which had to add four additional workers — bringing the total workers to 15 — to manage the overflow, according to Barbara Shipley, chief of the precinct.

Shipley said that despite the break in busing from 12-2 p.m., they still could not clear the line, adding that the rush had been going on "all day." There were two lines: a line of about five registered voters at a time on one side and an enormous and growing line of same-day registration voters which were seemingly all HU students, according to Shipley.

"Honestly we had no concept of what the day was going to be because there were so many early voters," Shipley said. "This is a great turnout, we're excited to see them all and we're working the lines as fast as we can."

Students were filling out their paperwork in line which for some took as long as two hours and 40 minutes as of 3 p.m. The waiting students filled the three cafeteria-style tables just inside the main entrance of the school and the line continued back into the hallway. When a poll worker instructed the students to stretch the line out further to be more organized, it stretched nearly to the end of the hallway that curled from the main lobby to an exit.

Students said many classes were canceled in honor of Election Day. Shipley, reading a text from an HU official, said students who showed proof of having voted would be excused from classes.

This is Shipley's third presidential election as a poll official at Phoebus and ninth election overall. She said she's never seen anything like what she saw Tuesday.

HU students Seth Lewis, 20, a sophomore from Chicago studying music recording technology, and Amber Turner, 19, a sophomore from New Jersey studying psychology, voted together on Tuesday after the two-hour process of registering same-day. Lewis said he thinks the reason so many students came out to vote was the "social-political climate" and students realizing that the effects of the election would soon become "part of our everyday life."

Shipley said that as of 5 p.m., 413 regular ballots had been cast alongside more than 400 provisional ballots though many more students were still in the line that continued to snake far back into the hallway. The shuttle would continue to drop off students until polls close.

Virginia Department of Elections Commissioner Susan Beals said during a media briefing she had heard reports of long lines at college campuses across the state, with students being encouraged to use same-day registration and cast provisional ballots. She said those localities would be deploying extra election staff members and supplies to those precincts and told voters to stay in line.

"Even if the seven o'clock hour passes, they will process you, and they do want you to vote," she said. "So, please, do not get out of line."