COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Local election officials are seeing lines wrapped around the building at precincts across metro Atlanta with early voting underway for this year's midterm election.
Channel 2's Berndt Petersen went to the main elections office in Cobb County, where voters waited up to three hours in line Wednesday.
"Oh my God! I had no idea the turnout would be this heavy so early," voter Sandra Davis said.
Many standing in line told Petersen the line reminded them of Black Friday lines outside their favorite department store.
Andy Whitten said he knew he'd have to be patient.
"I had suspected it might be like this,” Whitten said.
"How long did you wait?" Petersen asked Whitten.
"Close to two hours," Whitten said.
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For much of the day, the wait was three hours, according to elections officials. That wasn’t a problem for Vonnie Austin.
"I would stand out here for 10," Austin said. "I'll camp out all night. Doesn't matter. I have to vote."
The county's elections director told Petersen that she has all hands on deck, and then some.
"It's not quite at a presidential level, but it's much higher than any midterm we've seen,” Cobb County Board of Elections Director Janine Eveler said.
The parking lot was no picnic either. Some early voters said they circled round and round for more than 20 minutes to finally find a spot.
Davis said the lines made her think of Disney World.
“It looks something like this. It looks like this. But the fact remains is that there are a lot more serious issues going on in there than at Disney World,” Davis said.
The polling location was open until 5 p.m. Wednesday. Anybody that was in line was allowed to vote.
There will be two early-voting locations opening for Saturday voting in Cobb County this weekend.
In another week, there will be 11 more early-voting locations opening.
Almost 70,000 people cast their ballots on the first day of early voting, which more than tripled the first day turnout from 2014 midterm election.