Voters say they are eager to participate in an election unlike any other.
The line started at 5:30 a.m. -- one hour before the /*polls*/ opened across the Triangle. But the voters who lined up at one polling station in /*Raleigh*/ wouldn't have missed the historic election.
"I'm just floored how North Carolina has become just such a pivotal role in this election and I'm really just glad to be a part of it," voter Granger Roseberry said.
Election officials expect a record turnout, but the lines dwindled across /*Wake County*/ after the morning rush.
Those lines are expected to pick up again at lunch and around closing at 7:30 p.m.
Election officials say they're getting plenty of calls from registered /*Republicans*/ asking if they can vote in the /*Democratic*/ Primary.
For 21-year-old Steven Anthony, it's his first trip to the polls.
While some voters won't reveal their picks for president, others say it was Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama who pushed them to the polls.
"Clinton, I guess, in the early 90s, he really had that youth vote, that push by the young people that, ok, this is the change that we need to have and Barack Obama, I hate to say it, but he's kind of like the Clinton of the new millennium," voter Candice Cooper said.
State elections director Gary Bartlett said Tuesday turnout was "steady ... not tremendously heavy."
Bartlett said there have been about a dozen instances of voting machine problems. He said that compares with about 120 problem reports in 2006 when most counties had new voting machines.
Bartlett also said there had been fewer than 10 complaints from unaffiliated voters who said they couldn't get a Democratic ballot they requested.
You can vote in the Democratic primary if you're a registered Democrat or unaffiliated. Polls close at 7:30 p.m. tonight.
