The Virgin Islands started heading to the polls Monday morning even before they opened at 6 a.m., in some cases facing lines hundreds of voters long.
She said she arrived there a few minutes before 6 a.m. to find a line spanning from the door of the school nearly to the road.
Ms. Simpson said that given the number of people, she felt the wait was reasonable.
“They’re keeping it moving,” she said.
Nearby, Egbert Smith wasn’t standing in line. The senior citizen took advantage of early polling Friday.
“I brought some people to vote, helping people who need a little help,” Mr. Smith said, adding that he usually fills his seven-passenger van a few times at every election.
This year, Mr. Smith has more reason to be invested in the election than usual.
“My daughter is running,” he said.
Shaina Smith is making her second bid for the House of Assembly, this year hoping to unseat long-time representative Andrew Fahie and to beat out independent candidate Preston Stoutt.
At the First District’s other polling station in Carrot Bay, the line appeared much shorter, but Ray Stephens said it wasn’t moving fast enough for him.
“I been here a while and the line ain’t moved at all,” Mr. Stephens said.
As he left the polling station, Mr. Stephens said he’d return around lunchtime in search of a shorter wait.
But most seemed not to mind the wait.
“I’m on vacation today,” said Lorna Thomas, who resides both in this territory and in St. Croix in the United States Virgin Islands.
She said she and her husband are staying with some cousins on Tortola for the week, a trip they planned so that they could vote in the election.
In Sea Cows Bay, cars lined the side of the main road as voters queued up for the first time at Ebenezer Thomas Primary School, visiting one of two lines, depending on their last name.
In Spanish Town, Virgin Gorda, the line to vote stayed inside the Catholic Community Centre polling station.
“Fortunately, it is a big hall,” Ninth District candidate Dr. Hubert O’Neal said. “They have the line snaked around inside there. It is air-conditioned, so it is comfortable.”
In previous years, a long line of voters extended outside of the Spanish Town polling station.
A little after 8 a.m., Dr. O’Neal had already cast is ballot at the Catholic Community Centre and was getting into a rental car.
“I think the turnout here in The Valley has been pretty brisk,” Dr. O’Neal said. “I went to North Sound as well — it is relatively light, but it usually is. I haven’t heard from my agents in Anegada, but I suspect the turnout is going to be pretty good.”
The territory has a total of 13,585 registered voters, and recent years have seen turnouts of 65 to 70 percent. According to the Office of the Supervisor of Elections, turnout in early voting was higher than during the previous election, with 886 casting ballots Friday compared to 653 in 2011.