Hoosiers planning to vote early are facing lines and wait times at polling stations.
Here in Allen County, the only polling station currently open has wait times from anywhere between a half an hour to an hour and a half.
In response to the increase, the Allen County Board of Elections will be opening satellite polling stations earlier this year, beginning on Oct. 26, and they’ll be staying open from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m., until the day before the election.
Allen County Director of Elections Beth Dlug says the increase in early voting this year has been hard to pin down.
“As far as in person early voting, we’re averaging in the last few days about 1600 people a day, compared to about 600 people a day in the 2016 presidential election.”
Dlug says they’ve seen a large rise in mail-in ballots this election, as well. In the 2016 election, the board mailed a total of 10,000 ballots. This year, Dlug says they’ve already mailed 33,000.
Dlug says the board will be sending out a postcard in the next week to remind people where the satellite locations are, as well as where their polling location is on Nov. 3.
