My precinct in Brentwood is usually tomb-like. Today I got there to vote at 9:30 and there was a line: a short one, but an actual line. Earlier in the morning, the line stretched down the block. One official told me that this was his sixth Presidential election, and he’d never seen such volume.
The staff work was very efficient, with a “greeter” at the door to make sure people knew which line to wait in and what to do.
The only activity outside the polling place was someone handing out “No on 8” (that’s the anti-gay-marriage initiative) literature.
Update A reader reports:
Over here in Venice it was the same.
At 6:55am the line was down the side of the building, it would take us just over an hour to get to cast our vote.
By 7:05am the line had doubled. I saw a neighbor who got in line at 7:10 wallking home at 9:15 as I was heading out to work.
The precinct workers were well-organized and efficient, but the turnout was simply crazy. In 22 years of voting at the same precinct there’s never been more than a dozen or so people lined up at once. But today is an historic day, everyone in line was excited about it, and everyone wants to be a part of it.