ROCK ISLAND, Illinois - One by one they came and waited.
Rock Island County's Clerk saw voters lining up before the doors opened at eight in the morning and this early voting station stayed open until seven at night.
"The numbers are up compared to four years ago," said Rock Island County Clerk Karen Kinney.
Up by a whopping 35-percent in Rock Island County. By this time four years ago, 20,000 Rock Island County voters had voted early. This year it's more than 27,000.
And registration is up too: more than 99,000 people registered to vote in Rock Island County.
And the lines on the eve of election day were much bigger than county election workers saw just two days before.
"For some reason, this year they didn't line up on the weekend like they did today," said Kinney.
"I think people waited longer."
There are record-setting numbers being seen throughout Illinois and Iowa.
Illinois has seen more registered voters than ever before. An estimated eight million Illinois residents are now registered. And as of Sunday, November 6, 2016, 1.6 million have voted.
As of the day before the elections, Iowa's Secretary of State reports 685,571 absentee ballots have been returned.
260,222 are from registered Democrats, 218,204 are from Republicans, and 149,816 are from people who have not declared a party affiliation.
Area counties have also seen record and near record early turnouts.
Almost 43,000 early votes are already cast in Scott County, 9200 in Muscatine County, and 4500 in Henry County, Illinois.
Many voters were coming in to voting precincts as the early voting hours were coming to an end,
For these voters it was simple: a decision had to be made.
"It's kinda hard to choose just one but it's kinda good," said Scott County voter Amanda Dees.
While it seems early voting went smoothly, election officials are really bracing for Election Day. Election workers vow rules will be enforced. Voting precincts are meant just for that: voting.
"No one should be hanging around, no one should be in the polling location and if you are, then you should be voting or not at the site at all," said Scott County Auditor Roxanna Moritz.
Scott County will use ten so-called "rovers" who will go precinct to precinct to trouble-shoot. And this year, eight of the ten will be sheriff's deputies.
"You've got to be very careful when it comes to polling places," said Scott County Chief Deputy Thomas Gibbs.
"Everybody is very passionate about their candidate, especially this election cycle. You've got to be careful what you say and do inside a polling place."