DETROIT (AP) -- Sharon Ray was so determined to vote that she took a painkiller before leaving her house.
Ray, who suffers from a degenerative joint disease in her left knee, was sore after waiting to vote for two hours in Pontiac on Tuesday.
The 49-year-old figured she could rest later.
"No matter how long it took, I was going to vote," Ray said. "If I was going to have to sit on the floor, it didn't matter."
Ray called friends and relatives and urged them to vote. At one point, she took out her cell phone and texted 15 friends a terse message: "Get up and get out."
Ray joined thousands of others who braved long lines across Michigan. Election officials predicted a potential record turnout for the historic U.S. presidential contest between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.
Polls closed at 8 p.m. across much of Michigan, though those in line by 8 p.m. were being allowed to vote. Four counties in the western Upper Peninsula on CST closed one hour later.
The secretary of state's office had forecast that about 70 percent of the state's 7.5 million registered voters would cast ballots in the election that featured the first African-American presidential candidate from a major party.
"This is making people come together," second-grade teacher Lawanda Anner said after waiting three hours to vote at Detroit's Henry Ford High School.
She snapped a picture of her 18-year-old son and seven of his friends, who turned out to cast their first presidential ballots.
Anner said the long wait was a sign that "people know to make it better, you have to vote now."
Voters encountered sunny skies and unseasonably warm temperatures that in some spots reached the 70s.
The secretary of state's office reported "minor" malfunctions of tabulators jamming when ballots were inserted. But those were fixed right away, said secretary of state spokeswoman Kelly Chesney.
Some voters also complained that the tabulators full of ballots weren't working. The tabulators were down temporarily until the counted ballots could be removed, Chesney said.
Long lines formed at several polling places in Detroit -- where some voters brought collapsible lawn chairs, newspapers, iPods and other MP3 players.
Audrey Glenn, a 19-year-old Wayne State University nursing student, spent four hours standing and waiting to cast a ballot, in part because Southfield election officials couldn't find her name on their lists.
"But it was all worth it," she said.
Glenn said she made sure to vote to honor her late grandmother, who talked of the struggle in the South for African-American voting rights.
In Lansing, Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm joined more than 100 others waiting in line outside an elementary school to cast her ballot in the morning.
In western Michigan's Ottawa County, turnout was "very good" at Spring Lake Wesleyan church, said poll worker Pat Misner. She said by noon, 700 people had voted in person and 600 cast absentee ballots out of 2,450 registered voters.
In Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Marquette County Clerk Connie Branam said a lot of Northern Michigan University students were being referred to the Marquette city clerk because they gave incomplete information during voter registration drives this year.
"The city clerk is being overwhelmed, but they are voting," she said. "We're not denying anyone."
Print this story
E-mail this story
