Voting Appears Robust Across D.C. Area

Carolina Perez, who like Jackson voted at Eastern Middle school, said she was most concerned about education and immigration -- and was disappointed that few candidates on the ballot tackled the second issue on the campaign trail. "I have many relatives who don't have their papers," Perez said.

Germantown residents Kevin and Alison Dobbs, both Republicans, said they voted mostly along party lines and were glad to see the end of the relentlessly negative barrage of campaign commercials.

"It was a lot of what this person has done that is bad, but very little about what the other person would do,'' said Kevin Dobbs, a youth pastor.

Maryland elections officials paid special attention to preparing polling stations and training poll workers , in hopes of avoiding a repeat of the problems that plagued the primary voting.

Officials in Montgomery County reported minimal difficulties -- poll workers had all the equipment they needed, and the electronic voter rolls did not freeze up as they had in September.

Terry Lierman, chair of the Maryland Democratic Party, said the Democratic party is finding "much higher voter turnout than we projected in Montgomery County." He declined to give specific numbers.

Bob Antonetti, the interim elections administrator for Prince George's County, said that as of 3 p.m., an unofficial tally indicated that more than 24 percent of registered voters had been to the polls in the county. He said that represented especially high turnout. "It's been extremely well attended," Antonetti said.

Judy Flaig, Fairfax County elections manager, said voter turnout was "very, very heavy" this morning, "on a presidential pace even," but said things slowed considerably in the afternoon. She said they may see another surge this evening when voters return home from work.

With absentee ballots double the amount collected in similar midterm elections, Flaig estimates they may achieve 60 percent voter turnout.

Voting was heavy throughout Loudoun County, where election officials found lines of as many as 100 people waiting for polls to open at 6 a.m.

By late afternoon, registrars in Alexandria, Arlington and Falls Church were also describing voter turnout as heavy, possibly record-breaking for a non-presidential year.

While Arlington Registrar Linda Lindberg said she couldn't tally how many people had come through the polls, she said her office was anticipating a 60 percent turnout.