);

No Waiting in Philly

Howard University News Service

Lauren Walker was already dreading standing in a long line in Philadelphia to vote in this historical presidential election.

“I had driven around and seen other polling places, and I could see the lines coming out the door,” Walker, 22, said. ” So, I expected when I got to my polling place there would be a line.”

But when she arrived, and assumed her place, there was only one person ahead of her. And technically, she wasn’t even first.

“There was one person at the line for people whose last names began with A to N,” she said. “I was in the line O to Z, and there was no one in front of me.”

Within five minutes she was back in her car.Walker, a Howard University student, said this was the second time she has voted in a presidential election.

She could have registered in D.C. and saved herself the trip to Pennsylvania. But she didn’t, in part, because, “I just don’t trust absentee ballots.”