Listening to violin players or a cappella singing groups, talking to football players or reading the newspaper -- these were a few things thousands of Penn Staters did while waiting in line to vote Tuesday.
But Steve Winslow said he was spending his wait deciding for whom to vote.
Winslow was still unsure when he got in line about what his ballot would look like when he cast it at St. Paul's United Methodist Church, 109 McAllister St.
While he said the line was "kind of a bummer," he would wait as long as it took to get into the polling places. Winslow, a Libertarian and former Ron Paul supporter, said he didn't like either main party candidate but would vote for one anyway.
Josh Howe (senior-chemical engineering and physics) said he had already spent an hour in line and was studying for the class he was skipping.
Howe said he had heard the wait was two hours long when he got in line, adding some other would-be voters "bolted before they were invested" upon hearing that news.
Voters at St. Paul's United Methodist Church encountered a few issues that contributed to the long lines, including a glitch with the optical scan machine and having only one set of voting books, Donna Brooks, a judge of elections, said.
Violinist Lemuel de la Cruz (graduate-music performance) came to the rescue at the church when he heard of the problems by entertaining the crowd with Disney songs, or songs by Belgian violinist Eugene-Auguste Ysaye, both of which elicited applause from those in line.
Early in the afternoon, that precinct got a new optical scan machine and got another set of books so poll workers could divide the line into two.
At times, lines were long everywhere, Centre County Commissioner Jon Eich said, because of voter registration -- the county saw record high voter registration this year.
Eich, stationed at precinct 25 in the HUB-Robeson Center Tuesday evening, said one student reported waiting 10 minutes to vote, while others waited an hour and a half.
Football players directed students where to vote -- the "blood drive room," Lydell Sargeant told some passersby.
Some students reported waiting nearly three hours at the Friends Meetinghouse, 611 E. Prospect Ave.
Mike Geraghty (freshman-business) said he had waited for an hour and 15 minutes at precinct 44 in the HUB. He texted and e-mailed to pass the time.
"I voted for McCain -- straight Republican ticket," Geraghty said. But, he added, "I think Obama's got it pretty locked up."
After waiting for an hour and a half, Winslow decided to vote for Obama with five minutes to spare.
