Although some voters met with problems on Election Day, officials said long lines and faulty ballots weren't the norm around Gainesville.
Including the record-breaking 53,556 votes that were cast early, about 78 percent of Alachua County's registered voters took part in the election.
Some students who said they had registered on campus were unable to vote when precincts showed their registration to be incomplete or nonexistent.
Pam Carpenter, Alachua County Supervisor of Elections, said the students had registered with the New Voters Project by Student Public Interest Research Group, or Student PIRG.
About 10 to 12 students were required to vote on provisional ballots and will have until 5 p.m. Thursday to confirm their registrations, Carpenter said.
Poll workers at the Reitz Union reported that a lawyer from the Obama for America campaign appeared inquiring about complaints that workers were having difficulty finding proof of registration from a few students.
Other people received a text message stating incorrectly that voting had been extended until today.
"No one was taking that original text message seriously," Carpenter said. "They pretty much knew that Election Day was today."
Still, an e-mail from Patricia Telles-Irvin, vice president of Student Affairs, was sent out to students informing them of the illegitimacy of the text message.
Steve Orlando, UF spokesman, said UF was unsure of who sent the message but felt it was important to publish a correction, particularly because it was many students' first time voting.
"We wanted to set the record straight," Orlando said.
Despite the slips-ups, Carpenter said polling stations throughout Gainesville and Alachua County faced no serious problems Tuesday.
Lorin Johnson, a UF freshman who voted in the early afternoon and brought a book to read while waiting in line, said the process was quick and painless, not at all what she had expected.
With this being the first election she was eligible to vote in, Johnson felt it was important to get out and choose a candidate.
"We have the ability to vote, and we should take advantage of it," she said.
A few stragglers came rushing into their polling places just before closing time at 7 p.m., said Bob Casey, a poll worker and former Florida House representative.
"The last guy came running up and I told him, 'Man, you just made it,'" Casey said. "And he said, 'Yeah, I had to run several red lights to get here.'"
Other voters got an early start. Margaret Harris, an assistant clerk at precinct 12, said 139 ballots were cast in the first 10 minutes of voting and that people were lined up at 5:45 a.m.
Obama volunteers, who were stationed outside polling centers throughout Gainesville, also arrived early. Volunteers handed out Democratic sample ballots and encouraged voters to select Obama as president.
Volunteer Kathi Vellinga, who was at a polling place at the American Cancer Society's Hope Lodge on Southwest 16th Street at 10 a.m., said she had seen many students voting that morning.
"It's good to see the energy on both sides," Vellinga said.
