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Even before masses of people began lining up outside a Clinton polling precinct on Tuesday, election officials worried the small venue wouldn't be able to house voters during the long day of voting and projected record turnout. And they were right.

Lines stretched around the Moose Lodge's parking, along Moose Lane down Brandywine Road and weaved through local neighborhoods, causing nearly a three-hour wait in the early hours of the morning.

At its longest point, between 7 and 8 a.m., the line reached the fourth house on Symposium Way, and cars were parked well beyond a half-mile from the polls.

Ronald Steele of Clinton arrived at the Moose Lodge at 6 a.m. to get a prime spot in line before the polls opened at 7 a.m. However, when he and his family arrived, he said he realized he should have gotten there at least two hours before the polls opened because the line was already circling around the parking lot.

Steele said he had voted at this polling center before and had never seen the line quite so long. After a two-hour wait, at 8 a.m. he still had more than 35 people in front of him in line to vote.

Election Judge David Nelson said the early morning hours are always the busiest, as "early birds" try to hit the polls before they go to work, but he said this turnout was unlike anything he had seen in his previous years' participation.

Steele said the election board should take advantage of daylight saving time and open the polls earlier in the day, allowing more people to vote before work, adding that he would definitely be voting for the referendum allowing early voting in Maryland.

Fern Green of Clinton, a provisional judge at the Lodge, said local election judges have been trying to convince the State Board of Elections to relocate their polling place for several years but have not made any progress. Calls to the State Board of Election were not returned by press time.

The center has about 50 parking spaces, one-quarter of the spaces needed to accommodate voters, causing traffic hazards because of double-parked cars, Green said.

"It was too small for previous elections," Green said. "But with this election it's really small."

Phyllis Ziegler of Clinton, who has served as a chief election judge for more than 25 years, said space is always tight in the one-room center, which has a maximum occupancy of slightly more than 200 people, causing voters to spill into the parking lot and surrounding streets.

The Board of Elections has held voting at the lodge for about the last 10 years, Ziegler said, and she said she has expressed her frustration to the Board that the location's small capacity makes it inadequate for the community's voters.

"I have 22 machines this time instead of 18," Ziegler said, "And 30 workers when I had 20 the last time, but that doesn't make the place any bigger."

Judy Farmer and her son, who live only a block away from the center, arrived to vote at 7:30 a.m. and joined the end of the line on Symposium Way. After seeing their normally uncrowded street filled with cars, they realized how crowded the polls would be but said they were still not expecting such a large turnout.

Eighteen-year-old Wilbur Farmer IV was excited to vote for the first time and said he planned to wait as long as necessary to cast his vote — "even if it takes five hours."

E-mail Megan McKeever at mmckeever@gazette.net.