At least two of Sparks precincts on Tuesday reported steady waves of residents lined up to vote as early as 6:30 a.m. and no major voting machine problems were reported.

Laurel Moser, polling manager at Bud Beasley Elementary School, said up until the late morning hours "little rushes" of crowds were in and out, mainly before the day shift hours began.

Beasley had 20 machines in working order.

"We've had as many as 30 people in here at one time," she said.

Moser said Election Day was turning up a good number of people from all age ranges.

"They come from all walks of life," she said. "It's really great to see the young people coming out to vote."

Moser, also a poll manager for the primary election in August, recalled having half as many people show up for the vote.

"Early voting must had had an impact" on the general election, Moser said, looking over at the near empty room during a slow time.

Workers at Beasley included a manager, assistant manager, two intake workers and two assistant intake workers, a precinct board chair and precinct board worker for each precinct.

At Whitehead Elementary School, polling manager Moni Fox also described the early portion of the day as steady.

"I have a feeling many did the early voting," Fox said.

She noticed many first-time voters at the polls.

But she was particularly impressed by one man who received his absentee ballot late, had been in Los Angeles and flew up Monday just to vote in his precinct.

"He felt that strongly about it," Fox said.

Otherwise, she said, it was fairly quiet so far.

"I was in and out in five minutes," said Sparks resident Shawn Carr after voting at Reed High School. "There weren't any problems with the machines and the whole process was really easy."

Though voters differed on the candidates they chose, all were in agreement that voting is no longer the chore it once was.

"I remember when you'd have to wait in line for hours to vote. Now that there's early voting and the new machines, it doesn't take very long at all," voter Sean Smith said.

While voting may have been easy, determining which candidate to choose proved to be much more of a challenge for many voters. Jene Biswell chose to vote for John McCain because it was "better than the alternative."

"I would have had a tough time voting for McCain if he hadn't chosen Palin as his vice president,” Biswell went on to say. “I felt much better voting for that ticket once she was chosen as his running mate."

For voters like Chris and Raul, who chose not to disclose their last names, their vote was motivated by, in Chris’ words, a "need for change."

“I wanted to vote for a candidate who was going to provide something different from what we've been seeing, and I thought that Obama was the candidate who would do that," Raul said.

Other voters explained that they tended to vote along party lines. Tracy, who voted at Reed High School, said that she tends to vote for democratic candidates. In reference to Barack Obama, she said, "I agree with his politics."

There were several different reasons for voters to choose a particular candidate, ranging from candidate platforms to the candidate's charisma.

"McCain is more open with his policies. He is also much more experienced than Obama is and he is also fiscally responsible on taxation matters," UNR student Alison Berry said. "Obama also seemed to be too interested in an extreme redistribution of wealth."

Dee, a Sparks resident who only gave her first name, was interested in Obama because of his "high amount of self confidence."

"I really like the way Obama presents himself,” Dee said. “You can tell how confident he is when you watch him speak.”

Donna, who voted at Mendive Middle School, was concerned about the candidate's motivation for running.

"Obama is more for the people,” she said. “I was getting tired of politicians who didn't care about the people and who were more worried about getting re-elected than helping the people. This is my first time voting. I thought that it was time for a change."

While it was difficult for many voters to choose which presidential candidate to vote for, it was even more difficult to determine who to vote for in the local races. Many voters said that they relied on television ads to determine who they voted for in the state assembly, county commission and other races among Nevada politicians.

"For the local candidates and the different propositions, I looked mostly at the T.V. ads," said Neil, who voted at the Larry Johnson Community Center.

Other voters looked to specific issues to decide. Jene Biswell voted for "any candidates that spoke against bringing in more contractors to the Sparks area."

Researching the candidates who were running was more difficult than some voters anticipated.

"I went online to research the candidates, but it was hard to see where a lot of them stood," said Tracy, a voter at Reed High School. "Voting on the propositions and questions on the ballot was much easier because they explained what each question meant in the sample ballot."

Although there was some confusion as to local candidates’ platforms, there was little confusion when it came to people actually casting their ballots, according to local poll place managers.

"There weren't very many people who came to the wrong polling place," Reed High School poll place manager Lisa McNeill said. "We have a computer that shows us where each voter is supposed to go, and so if someone does come to the wrong polling place, we can look them up on the computer and tell them where they need to go.

The poll place manager at the Larry Johnson Community Center said, "Everyone knows what to do and there haven't been any problems with the machines."

Both poll managers at Reed High and the Larry Johnson Community Center noticed that groups of voters came in waves.

"We were quite busy when we first opened in the morning," McNeill said. "Many people wanted to vote before they went to work and we expect there will be another group of voters around lunch time and after they might get off work."

At Mendive Middle School, though, the voters came in at a relatively consistent rate.

"It has been pretty steady all today," Mendive Middle School poll manager Marilyn Kramer said. "There was a little bit of a line here in the early morning, but it feathered out around 9 a.m."

This election was the sixth one that Kramer was the poll manager for, and when comparing this election to previous ones she was a part of, she said, "The turnout this year was larger than the turnout for the primary and much larger than the turnout for the gubernatorial race two years ago."

“We had a line out the door this morning. It’s been a steady flow all day. [It’s been] a really good turnout,” said Kevin Schiller, a polling port manager for Marvin Moss Elementary School. “We opened at 7 a.m. with a line and we had a steady run until 8 a.m. It’s been steady all day."

Schiller said he only had one person show up who wasn’t registered and that his location has had party observers watching the voting all day.

As of noon, Marvin Moss Elementary School had had more than 400 voters.