With just one week left in the early voting window, it was a crowded scene at the Kempsville Area Library in Virginia Beach, full of voters waiting to cast their ballot. From the moment officials opened for business this morning, they tell us there was a line wrapped around the building.
"We opened up at 9. This line has been like this since 8:00 this morning," said Virginia Beach Registrar Satellite Chief Mike Ware.
Ware told us this location hit their biggest early vote turnout this week, and they're seeing at least a thousand people casting their vote a day. Polling officials at the Kempsville Area Library are expecting an even busier day next week.
"We're at about 1,300 people that we've pushed through today. I figure we may hit 1,000 every day during the week. If we hit 1,500 to 1,600 today, we'll clear that next Saturday."
We were also able to speak to voters in line who told us how they felt seeing today's turnout and why it was important for them to come and cast their ballot today.
"We usually do early voting. It really made me feel good. This is like one of the biggest turnout in years," said Kai Harris Sr.
"I was kind of shocked because I wasn't expecting a whole lot of people to go out and vote this early," said Keith Vaughn.
"It's like the line at Disney World; I couldn't believe it but it shows that everyone wanted to vote for democracy," said Harris.
"As a woman, we didn't have the right to vote until the 1920s, and so I feel it's very important for me and also for our daughter because people died, people fought for our right to vote," said Meagan Messiah.
"It's part of the process. It's part of being a U.S. citizen. You can't complain about who won or who lost if you didn't participate in the process," said Rayburn Messiah.
Locations in Virginia Beach will be open this week from Monday to Friday, with the last day to vote early being Saturday, Nov. 2. Your local voting site location can be found on the Virginia Department of elections website at www.elections.virginia.gov.