SMITH COUNTY, Texas — Tuesday, October 13, marked the first day of early voting in Texas.
More than 3,500 people have cast their vote in Smith County and more than 2,300 people cast their vote in Gregg County on the first day of early voting, according to election officials respectively.
In Smith County voting locations opened at 8 a.m., as long lines awaited poll workers at the Smith County HUB in Tyler.
"Today went very quickly, very peacefully, the lines moved rapidly," Christina Pesina, Smith County voter, said. "It's very organized, they're very intune with everything being sterile and six feet apart."
Pesina says despite the long line, she waited 20 minutes while other voters such as Craig Mercer, says he waited 45 minutes.
"People were nice they kept their distance on their own and once we got closer to the building, there was lines marking to keep your distance as well," Mercer said.
In Gregg County voters didn't mind the long lines.
"It was about 30 minute process and 15 people in line before we got here, and it went quite smoothly," Wendell House, Gregg County voter, said.
In Greggton, voters say they saw a voting machine being rolled into the location.
According to Gregg County Election Officials, it was not a change of a voting machine.
"We had a worker roll the curbside cart outside to allow a disabled person to vote," Kathryn Nealy said in a statement.
Gregg County officials say due to COVID-19, a shipment of gloves for voters to use as they vote was delayed till the afternoon.
"It is in the loading dock now. The polling locations have been told to have everyone use hand sanitizer until we can deliver the extra gloves," Nealy said in a statement.
Nealy also says officials received calls stating if a ballot paper had anything written on it, the ballot would be thrown out. According to Nealy, that claim is false.
"According to the Election Code 85.0311 – the early voting clerks initials MUST be with written or stamped on the ballot, and on Election Day, the election judge at each polling location must write or stamp their signature on the ballot," she said.
In Smith County, one voter was concerned over the number of voting machines at the HUB location, stating at one point the location was down to one.
Smith County Elections Administrator Karen Nelson says she was not made aware of any issues at the location.
"You could get into a situation where you're on a computer and something freezes and you have to back out and reboot, so it could have been something like that," Nelson said. " But we had all three of those computers going non-stop today."
Nelson says Smith County has seven early voting locations, and each location has between 15-20 voting machines.
"Voting machines are working perfectly," she said. "We had a couple places who were having a little bit of trouble staying online for voter check-in [through] laptop, but we got two in each locations so that helps," she said. "Nothing is put on hold, votes are still processed and able to vote. Everything has been going smoothly once you get in the flow of the first morning activities, then you get into that flow of everything and you just keep processing voters so everything seems to be moving well."
Voters also showed up to the locations wanting to drop off mail-in ballots.
Nelson says those are accepted in Smith County only through the HUB location.
"If someone wants to turn in their mail-in ballots in-person, they can do that at the Elections Office," she said. "It’s important to know when you come downtown you do not wait in line for early voting, so come over to the Election Office side. The 302 E. Ferguson side. We have a table set up and we have someone there they will look at your ID. You will sign a log and deposit your ballot to a locked box."
Nelson says the long lines aren't unusual for the first day of early voting.
"Everyone’s patience is would be greatly appreciated, and remembering we have three weeks of early voting and we have that Saturday and Sunday," she said.