Turnout was strong at the polls Saturday, the first day of early voting.

According to numbers from the county Democratic Party, almost 3,800 people turned out to county polling sites, outpacing numbers from the last midterm election in 2022.

Kingston’s early voting site is the Andy Murphy community center in Midtown. Some of those arriving yesterday morning waited almost an hour to vote.

“This line is definitely encouraging,” two people said separately, almost simultaneously, at the back of the line at 9:50 a.m., which would turn to 100-plus long about 20 minutes later.

A woman on line said she always votes early — “to avoid the lines,” she said with a smirk, gesturing to the long line ahead of her. She knew Election Day would be Tuesday, Nov. 3, and said, “I’ll be working that day.”

Noting the long wait, a poll worker said, “I wish we had something for older people” that would ease their burden for voting. Federal and state laws actually expressly require voting places to accommodate the disabled and infirm.

A woman half way through the line was assisted with a folding chair in the line, although it was not clear who made the chair available to her. By 10:20, two women were sitting in folding chairs in line and another was sitting on the seat of her walker.

Two women entered the polling place at 10:42 and immediately left the site after seeing the line.