Early voters overwhelm polling places in D.C., Maryland Long lines and lengthy waits were reported at polling places in Montgomery and Prince George's counties, as well as in several of the District's wards. Some voters, frustrated by the delays, left before voting. "We didn't expect all these people to come out," said Anthony F. Coachmen, a captain at the Columbia Heights Community Center in Ward 1. It was a surprise. The line to vote there snaked around the gymnasium as residents waited to use one of the six machines. "I'm guessing they have some kind of big kinks they have to work out inside there," said Brent Elrod, 51, who left without casting his ballot. It seems unfortunate there are so few machines. Donna J. Duncan, a director of elections for Maryland, said turnout was also heavy at the 46 early voting locations in the state. Duncan said it appeared many residents wanted to vote before the storm. She said she expects turnout to be heavy on Sunday as well; early voting sites in the state will be open from noon to 6. p.m. Paul Stenbjorn, a D.C. Board of Elections official, said he too believed some residents decided to vote in advance of the approaching storm. "This is the equivalent of people going to Safeway and buying the milk and the bread," Stenbjorn said. We planned for a big turnout and we are pleasantly surprised by this turnout and we will be bolstering the machines. Other District elections officials said the large turnout, particularly in areas of the city where early voting had been light in past elections, took them by surprise. By 11 a.m. Saturday at least 1,000 District residents had voted, a sizeable number considering 266,000 ballots were cast during the 2008 election. At the King Greenleaf Recreation Center in Southwest shortly after noon, some voters were still waiting to cast ballots more than two hours after arriving. "This is just disgusting," said Gail Ridley, who had arrived around 10:30 a.m. Michele Falkenau, had been waiting an hour and 40 minutes. "I came from Florida, the land of the hanging chads," she said. I never had to deal with any of this. Elections director Clifford D. Tatum, who was assisting voters at the recreation center, said the process was complicated by unexpectedly high turnout and an unusually lengthy ballot this year. In the past elections, he said, each machine could store all of the different ballot styles used citywide. This year, the nearly 700 different ballots had to be distributed among several machines, each with particular ranges of precincts on them. While elections officials provided a second machine for voters from the precincts closest to each of the eight voting centers, it was not nearly enough. By midday, they were scrambling to add third and fourth machines to each polling place.Voters from across town could cast ballots with little delay, however. Daniel Johnson and daughter Danielle Carter came to King Greenleaf after encountering long waits at the Dorothy I. Height Benning Library in Ward 7, near their Deanwood home. Instead of the two to three hours waits there, they found a 30-to-45-minute wait across the river. Carter said she'd expected a 15 or 20 minute wait. "it's discouraging," she said She was not alone in her frustration. "We thought we would come and get it done early, but it's not organized," said Melvina Brorman, 70, who waited nearly two hours in Columbia Heights. My knees are buckling. I suffer from arthritis. Others said they didn't mind the wait, noting that the District is overwhelmingly Democratic and that they were enthusiastic about casting their ballot for Obama. "I think if you are coming out first thing in the morning, you are willing to wait," said Andrea Gittleman, who voted for Obama. Early voting continues at eight locations in the District through Nov. 3, except for Sunday. The polling sites are open from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m, and any registered voter can cast a ballot at any location.