Problems persist at Velda City city hall, says P-D reporter Michele Munz.

More than 200 people still waited to cast a ballot as night fell and the closing of polls neared. The wait: about 5 hours. Which, oddly, is an improvement from earlier in the day when the wait ran 7 hours.

Voting problems in the St. Louis region appear centered on North County, including Velda City. Other areas report little or no waits this evening. 

 St. Louis County Executive Charles Dooley showed up in Velda City to investigate the now-legendary problem.

“What is the problem? They had to anticipate this. What is so different about this poll as compared to other polls? This is unbelievable,” Dooley said. “There is no other place like this in the county.”

Voter Erica Macon, 28, stood in line and fretted about making it to her job on the night shift at a nursing home. “I’m feeling drained,” she said. “They have something screwed up inside there.”

The problem inside the tiny city hall building was a lack of space. The precinct had been allocated three touch-screen machines and eight paper ballot booths. But there was room for only the three touch-screens and two paper booths.

Also, many voters seemed to distrust the electronic machines and favored the paper ballots.

At 5:30 p.m., six more privacy booths were opened up in another room.

That appeared to speed up the voting process. A little.

But voters were not discouraged. Jacqueline Ewell, 52, standing at the back of the long line, said she would be there as long as it takes.

“I want to be an example for my grandchildren,” she said. “If something is important to you, you have to put forth the effort, whatever it takes.”

And in Ewell’s case, it could take hours.