Cleveland Voters Surprised at Long Lines Tuesday Morning on Election Day

Voters at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse around 11 a.m. on Tuesday in Downtown Cleveland. Credit: Mark Oprea

Ninety minutes in Mayfield. An hour and forty-five minutes downtown. Lines down the Euclid Avenue at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections after early voting days that saw hours-long waits.

Cleveland voters across the city are reporting supposedly higher-than-normal poll turnouts Tuesday morning, as a turbulent and many times mind-numbing election heads into its final hours.

As of 12:30 p.m., 410,534 ballots have been cast around Cuyahoga County—roughly 46 percent of its eligible voters. Which is still a shot away from 2008 turnout, when 670,769 voters around the county voted on Super Tuesday.

But in Cleveland, itself deep in a county almost certain to go blue like years past, an excitement tinged with hurrahs for democracy—the country working like it was designed to, for the most part—has many both anxious and eager to see the results, both on a presidential level and for local and statewide issues.

The line to vote at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. pic.twitter.com/Oglbl37WWl
— Michael Collier (@MikeACollier) November 5, 2024

“I’ve heard that early voting was very long,” Joe Boggs, 43, said standing outside the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse around 11 a.m. on Tuesday, after casting his vote. “For me, it was about twenty minutes—not as bad.”

On the corner of Euclid and East 9th were two women in their early twenties. “It took about 30 minutes,” one of them told Scene. “Not an hour. Not that long.”

Polls across the state will be open until 7:30 p.m., as the state forecasts a possible record turnout. (Ohio employers can’t deny time off for those who want to ensure they vote on Election Day.)

Statewide, Ohioans will be deciding on Issue 1, whether or not to create a 15-person independent commission in charge of redistricting Ohio’s legislative and congressional boundaries, as well as casting votes on three pivotal Ohio Supreme Court races. Cleveland will be deciding on Issue 49, whether or not to add a levy for CMSD, and countwide on Issue 55, whether or not to raise the sin tax on tobacco products in order to bolster arts funding.

But regardless of outward stance for Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, Clevelanders were happy to report a citywide enthusiasm for the first presidential election fully devoid of pandemic measures.

“Line of ~ two dozen at 10:45 am,” Ward 17 Councilman Charles Slife wrote on Twitter/X. “I’ve never had to wait to vote midday before!”

“With minutes until the polls open in Ohio a solid line is starting to form outside St. Mel’s Church on Cleveland’s west side,” Mike Brookbank wrote.

“I just got off the phone with my mother. The line at their polling place in Mayfield Heights was 90 minutes long,” julian/juliet said.

County issues, and judges races, are likely to be called by 11 p.m. tonight. The 2020 election, which took five days to decide the race for President Biden, might be a sound precursor to what could be a tight call between Harris and Trump, which many polls have shown. (Nate Silver showed a slim half-percent change for Harris as of Monday night.)

Trump himself has long hinted that he will contest the results of the general election if he were to lose. Locally, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has promised tight security measures, along with a robust observation of polling machines.

All of which has Boggs eager to let the day pass.

“I think no matter who anyone voted for, that I think we’ll be returning a bit more of a normal cadence of society” tomorrow, he said. “But everybody’s been very polite today. It was nice to see.”