ORLANDO, Fla. — As thousands of people are eager to cast their ballots during early voting, many are dealing with traffic backups, trouble locating quick parking and long lines at polling places.

What You Need To Know

  • In Orange County, early voting kicked off on Monday

  • As thousands of people are eager to cast their ballots during early voting, many are dealing with traffic backups, trouble locating quick parking and long lines at polling places

  • With a record number of early voters in Orange County, officials say these things are sometimes just part of the process

“This is a very historic election," Orange County Supervisor of Elections Glen Gilzean said. "We’ve exceeded numbers every day in early voting since we started on Monday."

With a record number of early voters in Orange County, Gilzean said delays can be part of the process, so voters are urged to be patient.

Since early voting started on Monday in Orange County, at least 66,000 people had cast their votes as of Thursday afternoon. Voter turnout numbers are constantly updated on the Supervisor of Elections website.

“I just want to vote early, if anything, maybe stop all the mail from coming in my mailbox and get it done, get it out of the way,” said Jason Schuck who showed up at the Southwest Library location on Della Drive. “I know who I’m voting for.”

Schuck said he was working Thursday, but decided to take a long lunch to give him time to vote.

“Parking is a little bit of an issue here," he said. "There’s a lot of circling the lot."

He said that parking has been “somewhat inconvenient” at the Southwest Library polling location.

“It could probably be in a bigger venue, to be honest,” Schuck said.

In response, Orange County Supervisor of Elections Glen Gilzean said he is visiting all early voting sites to study the long lines in an effort to figure out ways to alleviate Schuck’s and other Orange County residents’ concerns.

“One of the things we’re working with is our county partners and other governmental partners, (is) to find ways of expanding early voting," he said. "To ensure that we can minimize long lines as much as possible."

At the library, Spectrum News saw signs that said a shuttle was available to transport voters from the overflow parking at the YMCA, which was more than a mile from the polling place.

Gilzean said he’s seeing long lines at polling places all over Orange County.

He said if voters take time to go through their ballot before coming to a polling location, that will help mitigate long lines.