Hampton University students crowded into the Phoebus High School polling location in Hampton on Tuesday to complete their same-day voter registration and cast provisional ballots.
The students arrived in university shuttles, which were dropping students off every hour starting at 9 a.m., according to a flyer produced by HU’s Office of Student Involvement and Leadership. The students overwhelmed the precinct, which had to add four additional workers — bringing the total workers to 15 — to manage the overflow, according to Barbara Shipley, chief of the precinct.
Shipley said that despite the break in busing from 12-2 p.m., they still could not clear the line, adding that the rush had been going on “all day.” There were two lines: a line of about five registered voters at a time on one side and an enormous and growing line of same-day registration voters which were seemingly all HU students, according to Shipley.
“Honestly we had no concept of what the day was going to be because there were so many early voters,” Shipley said. “This is a great turnout, we’re excited to see them all and we’re working the lines as fast as we can.”