US Election: Voters face hours-long wait at polling stations

Americans going out to polling sites Tuesday were reporting lengthy lines and hours-long wait times, especially in the toss-up states that will determine who becomes president.

Some polling sites in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania described turnout as “unprecedented,” with voters waiting several hours to even enter the buildings, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Questlove, best known for being the drummer and frontman of the band The Roots, said on Instagram he was expecting a two-hour wait in Philadelphia.

He posted an image of Netflix television titles and wrote underneath: “Welp, Netflix about to be my friend in this two hour wait of a line … Happy to see this positive turnout.”

However, voters at other places in Philadelphia reported breezing through the poll sites.

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, must hold onto the urban and college-educated voters of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in order win Pennsylvania, where Republican Donald Trump has had success with working-class voters.

In the north-eastern swing-state of New Hampshire, Twitter users posted images of lines stretching far outside polling places in the state’s biggest city, Manchester, even before they officially opened at 6 am (1100 GMT).

There were concerns ahead of Tuesday about voter intimadation tactics from supporters of Trump, who has repeatedly called the election is “rigged” despite no evidence to support the claim.

Political provocateur and Trump backer Roger Stone had called on people to descend on polling places as independent poll watchers as part of an effort dubbed “Stop the Steal.”

Kristen Clark, the president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a group running an independent effort to address voter complaints, said it had received scattered reports of voter intimidation in parts of the battleground state of Florida.

But if there was trouble at the polls, the cause often was often due to technical issues.

The worst appeared to be in Durham County, North Carolina, where officials decided to extend opening times there by one and a half hours after computer failures at six sites prevented workers from checking the voter registion.

North Carolina has been one of the most highly contested states in this election. The state’s many African American voters pushed it to the Democrats in 2008, but it returned to Republicans four years later.

Turnout among African American voters had trailed during early voting, providing a worrying sign for Democrats.