INDIANAPOLIS — A record number of people in Central Indiana turned out for the first day of voting.
According to the Marion County County Clerk's office, 1,240 people voted on Tuesday. The previous county record was in 2016 when 986 people showed up for the first day of early voting.
LEARN MORE | Early voting information in Indiana
"When I came outside right around 8 a.m. before the doors opened and saw the line wrapped around the building, I was a little surprised," Russell Hollis, Deputy Director at the Marion County Clerk's Office, said. "It was encouraging to see folks out here making sure their voices are heard."
Hollis says the higher than normal early voter turnout is changing how they're doing things moving forward with early voting.
"We've reconfigured some things to make the sign-in and check-in process go faster," Hollis said.
Despite trying to cut down on the wait time voters experience, Hollis wants them to have patience because we are still in a pandemic and they're not taking any chances when it comes to COVID-19.
"Voters are spaced further apart when they're in line and additionally, we're cleaning the voting equipment frequently between uses. That does slow things down a little bit," Hollis said.
