With the election only a few days away, thousands of people are heading to the polls to place their votes before Tuesday. In Scott County 41,763 voters have requested absentee ballots or voted early. Of those voters, almost 8000 have voted at early voting sites. In Rock Island County, nearly 7000 voters cast their ballots on the first day of early voting last week. However, even with high numbers election officials expect early voting sites to be very busy this weekend.
At early voting sites in Scott County people were lining up all day.
"I had to beat the rush," says Jenny Hobbs of Davenport, "I think there's going to be a lot of people voting this year, because it's a vital election."
"I decided to come in now, before it got really crowded," says Victor Mbakwe of Davenport.
The rush at the county building and satellite voting sites is expected to pick up even more as the days to the election dwindle down.
"I thought it was pretty busy in here for it being a couple of day before the election," says Hobbs.
Those who voted early say the process was simple. They say they filled out their form, then their ballot and put their votes in the very full ballot box.
"I thought the voting process was actually pretty easy," says Mbakw, "Some people make a big deal out of it, but it thought it was pretty easy."
Absentee voting is also extremely popular for this election.
"We expect to get a lot in the mail today, tomorrow and then Monday," says Scott County Auditor Roxanna Moritz.
Just because early voting numbers are so high, don't expect slower than usual polling places on Tuesday.
"We just want to remind everybody that on Tuesday we still expect 40,000 people to come out to the polls," adds Moritz, "If you're coming to the polls between 7am and 9pm or 3pm and 6pm, it's probably going to be busy, so just expect a little extra wait
These are the hours for early voting: Rock Island County Office, Saturday 9am-Noon. The Bettendorf Library, Davenport's Fairmount and Eastern Avenue Libraries and Scott County Library from 10am to 4pm. Scott County residents can vote Monday at the county building from 8am until 5pm.
