WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — On the last day of walk-in voting, the line to cast ballots at the Luzerne County Elections Bureau went around the building something voters were not expecting when they showed up.
"No, I thought it was gonna be like 20 minutes tops and then I turned the corner I was like oh my gosh," said Zachary Gordon-Abraham of Wilkes-Barre. "No, I wasn't expecting it to be a two-hour wait."
This is the first time that Daymond Kovaly of Shavertown is voting in a presidential election; he didn't mind the wait at all
"I feel that I mean everybody wants their voice to be heard. Everybody wants the best for the country. You know, the more people out voting, because I know that 2016 I believe there wasn't there was like a huge number. Not voting," Kovaly said. "So it's good to see a lot more votes, and a lot more kind of decision making on the people, America."
Officials in Luzerne County say they were not expecting this big of a turnout when they first started the walk-in votes, but they hope this leads to shorter lines on election day.
"Luzerne County we have over 216,000 registered voters, we think we're going to get probably 60 to 70% of that," said David Pedri, Luzerne County Manager. "So far 70,000 people have applied for mailing ballots, 40,000 of them have already come back no matter what happens, no matter how you look at the numbers. This could be the biggest turnout in Luzerne county history to vote."
"You know it's a big deal but then you get here, and it's not even the Election Day, officially and it's just, it feels like it, it feels like I'm on November 3," added Kovaly.
Some voters say they were lucky enough to make some friends over the course of the wait to vote.
"You know, you kind of walk-in here not really wanting to talk to anyone because you don't know what you know if they're gonna agree with you about everything but um, ya know, the group around me has been great and we've, we've gotten some great conversations going on," Gordon-Abraham said.
If you have a mail-in ballot, you can still come to the Luzerne County Elections Bureau and drop it off, right up until election day.
There is a box in the lobby at the Penn Place Building; it's open weeknights until 8 p.m.