Early Voting Begins in Bismarck | Video

Retha Colclasure | 10/24/2012

Campaigns on both sides of the aisle have been sending out applications for absentee ballots and letting voters know about early voting opportunities, and it`s working.

It didn`t take long and there was already a line in the early voting precinct in Bismarck.

"Early voting opened today at noon with quite a bang. A number of people were waiting in line to vote," said County Auditor Kevin Glatt.

And that`s on top of the thousands of absentee ballots his office had already sent out.

"The all time record between absentee and early voting is 12,000. We`ve had requests for more than 10,000. Pretty impressive," Glatt said.

Voters had all sorts of reasons for showing up before election day.

"We weren`t going to be here on election day. It was an important election, we wanted to make sure our vote counted," said Bismarck voter Brenda Seagren.

She says this line was a lot easier and faster than others she`s stood in.

"The last time we voted four years ago, we stood in line forever and we both had to get to work. This was easier, we could do it on our noon hour and make sure it`s done."

Glatt says he hopes the high early turnout will lead to a high overall voter turnout, but says there`s no way to know how many will show up at the traditional voting booths on November 6.

Glatt says no matter how many ballots come in before election day, they still prepare for a huge turnout, and all the possibilities on election day.

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