Fuelling the high turnout is the Democratic contest that pits U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton against Sen. Barack Obama. A higher than normal turnout is also expected in the District 4 congressional race in which Democratic incumbent Albert R. Wynn and challenger Donna Edwards are in a fierce battle to win the nomination. The Fourth District spans Prince George’s and Montgomery counties.
Polls scheduled to open at 7 a.m. at Potomac High School in Oxon Hill were delayed by half an hour. A long line subsequently formed outside the polling station, and election official Bill Senior said it was because polling officials did not have the computer code needed to get the machines running.
Election judge Lonnie Henderson said he was frustrated with the delay.
‘‘This is a circus, man,” he said.
Oxon Hill resident Natasha Thomas, 29, arrived early to cast her vote before getting to work, but said she had to leave before the machines started running.
‘‘The machines aren’t working,” she said. ‘‘But I’ll come back later.”
At Palmer Park Community Center, voters found a small sign on the door telling them to go to John Carroll Elementary School in Landover to cast their ballots, a distance that some complain is too far for the many seniors who want to vote.
Yvonne Stewart, a Palmer Park resident who came out to vote at the community center, said many Palmer Park residents are seniors without cars.
A line formed at Glenn Dale Elementary School a half-hour before polls opened. Residents who arrived at the polling station early reported that it took at least an hour for them to register their votes.
Several residents said even though there were six voting machines, only three were in operation.
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