In a year of early voting, some waited until yesterday

The line to vote at Tempe History Museum stretched out to the parking lot at 5:45 a.m. Tuesday and didn’t get any shorter.

A record 100.2 million Americans cast ballots early, but these voters waited until Election Day and showed up in person.

Neal Sampson, 26, was happy to get out of the house. He works mostly from home these days.

“Voting in person is more fun than just doing it at home,” Sampson said.

Tisha Bright, of Tempe, waited with her son, Aidan, who’s 4. She wore a Tshirt that said, “I have issues.” One of them is that she doesn’t trust mail-in ballots.

Dan Miller, the museum’s exhibit curator, arranged for a DJ and live music. He put trivia questions and answers on the ground along the line.

“It’s a fun experience,” Ben Holko, 29, of Tempe, said. Tuesday is his day off from his masseuse job.

Voting in person feels real, Holko said, feeding his ballot into the machine and seeing the counter click up by one.

“It’s nice to be involved instead of just sitting back and observing,” he said.

Marcos Ibarra, 33, always votes in person.

“It’s Election Day,” he said. “It’s the most democratic thing you can do.”

Cassie Morwood, of Gilbert, co-director of Tempe Christian Preschool, usually brings her daughter, who’s 7. But it felt safer not to do that, what with COVID-19 and talk of possible disturbances.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” Morwood, 38, said. But she had to come, wearing a mask printed with people of all colors.

Morwood liked standing in line, seeing the diversity of the crowd and listening to people talk politics civilly, even though they didn’t agree.

It made her hopeful.