Heavy rainfall as Gasconade County voting precincts opened Tuesday for the Nov. 4 General Election didn’t seem to deter voters.

At the new Rural Canaan 112th precinct at Church of Christ south of Owensville, 125 ballots had been cast in the first hour and 15 minutes as voters arrived in the rain and darkness to mark the double-sided ballots which included five state constitutional amendments and a minimum wage proposition. Two tabulator machines were in operation and voters were asked to wait about 20, 21 seconds for their ballots to be scanned and dropped into the locked chamber below.

The new polling location prompted election judges to offer opinions Monday on their precinct layout regarding voter traffic flow from checking in, voting at 13 screened stations, then depositing their ballot in the tabulator, for the largest of the county’s precincts. All seemed well in the early hours of voting there. A line of voters which formed in the first 30 minutes of balloting had slowed to a steady stream of participants over the next 30 minutes.

Both of the wards in Owensville also appeared to have steady early turnout despite the weather. Election judges at both precincts, Ward 2 at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church’s Parish Center and Ward 1 at Seasons of Faith, said several lines had formed throughout the first couple of hours of voting.

In Bland, the Bland/Canaan precinct at Zion Church had a line around the room to collect ballots, a second line waiting for a polling booth, and a third line waiting to cast the ballot in the tabulator. The room had an air of giddiness as neighbors greeted one another, exclaiming how long it had been since they last saw one another.

After waiting in line, Don Strodford was able to leave his ballot in the box.

“To vote against Trump,” Strodford said about why he braved the weather and lines at the polls. “People’re drinking the Kool-Aid. They think whatever he says is gospel.”

For Joseph Crull, the presidential race was important, but he cared more about the constitutional amendments.

“Prop 3 mainly,” Crull said. “I’d have passed on my presidential election vote to vote for Amendment 3. But (even if it fails), I’m afraid it will just keep coming back.”

The tabulator had recorded 263 votes at 9:58 a.m. at the Bland precinct.

During the set up work on Monday, Ward 1 Owensville election judges shared details of how the county’s no excuse absentee balloting period had gone. Danielle Norsic, the county’s new deputy clerk, noted 10 percent of the county’s registered voters, just over 1,100, had cast ballots during the early no excuses period and 50 more had voted on Monday.

The tally as a whole included 5 percent of every precinct’s registered voters.

(With reporting by Roxie Murphy and Dave Marner)