Republican Voting Since 1958 Volunteers For First Time On Election Day

John Speicher has voted since President Dwight Eisenhower was in office, but today is the first time he decided to volunteer on Election Day.

"This is the year we have to be involved," Speicher tells Patch. "We just have to do it. It means so much to our country. I spoke to more first-time volunteers—people just like me—who have never worked in an election before, and it's incredible how many people have come out."

Speicher, a native of Connecticut, kept dry and cool underneath a gazebo at where he stood with fellow Republican volunteers at Precinct 413.

He's never failed to vote since 1958, he said, during a U.S. Senate election, and back then he had to be 21 in order to vote. He moved to Florida in 2005 where he continues to vote today.

The message he's hearing from voters in 2012?

"Hope," Speicher says. "And I hear a lot of fear that their man won't get elected. They're really so enthused for Romney. You can feel it, you can really feel it. People just had enough."

Mike Durkin volunteered at the precinct since polls opened Tuesday and has voted in Sarasota for 35 years. He has never seen the turnout at Pine Shores like he has today. 

"I never seen it filled like this morning—in the rain," he said. Hardly a parking spot could be found, and voters poured in and out of the building smoothly, he added. 

No major issues at this polling place.