Polling places were mobbed around the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis early this morning. In a residential neighborhood near campus, a line of 300 people at Marcy Open School stretched out the door and around the corner. Poll workers had planned for the crowd: For the first time in memory (if not ever), four porta-potties lined the sidewalk. The wait was at least an hour. On campus, the orderly polling place at Coffman Memorial Union — where many (but not all) students who live in dorms vote — poll workers took in 200 ballots in the first hour. That’s in a precinct where half the voters don’t register until Election Day. More after the jump and video at a separate post. 

In between, especially in the Dinkytown area — where Bob Dylan, who playsed on campus last tonight, made his folk-singing debut — student sign-wavers stood on every corner flashing blue Obama signs. At University and 15th avenues SE, a young woman waved a hand-drawn sign that read simply, “HOPE.” (The “O” had Obama’s wheatfield logo inside.) Obama’s face looked out from “VOTE” signs on every utility poll up and down University Avenue and Fourth Street SE, two of the main campus thorough fares.

State Rep. Phyllis Kahn (DFL-Minneapolis), who is running for her 19th term in the Minnesota Legislature (and ran to her polling place at Marcy School for her morning jog), said today’s scenes of massive turnout already surpass anything she has seen in her 44 years in Minnesota.