PROVIDENCE — A record number of people are voting in the presidential primary in Greater Providence area, says Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis’ office. And it may turn out to be the largest vote for such a primary in the state's history.

“We’ve been visiting the polling places in Greater Providence – Warwick, East Providence, Cranston – and poll workers are saying this is the heaviest turnout they’ve ever seen,” said Mollis spokesman Chris Barnett.

From Burrillville to Portsmouth to South Kingstown, it's been a common refrain around the nation's smallest state.

Although voters in Texas, Ohio and Vermont are also casting presidential preference ballots today, the tight race between Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has placed unique significance on the role that Rhody's voters will play.

Although official turnout numbers won't be known until after polls close statewide at 9 p.m., it looks as if local voters are taking that role seriously.

Adding to the high turnout at individual polling places today may be a drop in the number of polls themselves. In the four years since the last presidential primary, cities and towns have closed more than 80 polling places to save money.

Journal photo / Bob Thayer

Rosann Maiello, left, and granddaughter Allare Maiello-Cerullo leave the Ferri Middle School in Johnston after Rosann voted. Allare says she enjoyed observing the entire voting process, thanks to her grandmother.

Calls to a poll hotline set up by the Secretary of State's office have been constant, Barnett said. “We can handle six calls at a time, and we’ve received nearly 3,000 calls since this morning,” almost without a break, he said. “The two most common questions are, where do I vote? And am I registered?”

The combination of high turnout and some new polling places has contributed to a few problems. A remnant of the state's last hot primary election -- between Republicans Lincoln Chafee and then-Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey for Chafee's Senate seat in 2006 -- also appears to be popping up.

Quite a few voters switched to voting Republican in that primary. While they could disaffiliate after the vote, some reports from the polls and calls to The Providence Journal are indicating that voters either failed to do so or that some polls do not have a record of their disaffiliation.

One voter on Providence's East Side complained she had to wait 40 minutes because staffers were missing some voter registration information. And a woman at the Shriners Hall in Cranston complained that poll workers wouldn't get her a chair to help alleviate back pain exacerbated by a long wait in line.

In South Kingstown, a steady stream of voters arrived at the high school gymnasium, with 353 having cast their ballots as of 9:30 a.m.

Frances Thayer, moderator at South Kingstown High School, said turnout this morning was “tremendous, the highest Ive ever seen and I’ve been doing this for a couple of years.”

“But it was expected,” she said. People were waiting 10 to 15 minutes to cast their ballots this morning."

Jill Granville brought her two year-old daughter Samantha “so she can see the process. We’ll keep doing it,” she said of bringing her to the polling place.

Several people waiting to vote in the high school gym discovered that they were in the wrong place and expressed frustration. Still, they said they would make the trip to Kingston to cast their ballot.

Constance Campana went to vote at the Church of the Redeemer on Providence’s East Side this morning. She said she had to wait about 40 minutes because staffers were missing some voter registration information.

First, she said, the staffers told her she was in the wrong place. Then, she said, they needed to use her mobile phone to reach the city’s Board of Canvassers to verify her information.

Laurence Flynn, executive director of the Providence Board of Canvassers, says the missing pages were sent to the church and the problem has been fixed.

In Cranston, Lori Dorsey almost didn’t vote this morning. She said it’s because she has a disability.

Dorsey, a 53-year-old social worker, has a back problem and can’t stand for long periods of time without support. But when she asked for a chair at her polling place, the Shriners Hall in Cranston, she said she was told she’d have to come back later.

Dorsey, who said she works two jobs, said several workers all but ignored her request and she almost left.

“I thought, ‘What am I thinking?’ ” She wondered if she was being turned away, what was happening to elderly voters, or others who were more easily discouraged.

“I had to rant and rave and scream and threaten,” she said.

Ultimately, it was the threat to reach out to a television reporter, she said, that got her a chair. Then she contacted the state Board of Elections.

Miguel Nunez, program specialist at Board, said a representative from the city’s Board of Canvassers would go speak to the staffers at Hall and make sure they knew that voters with special needs have a right to be accommodated.

At another Cranston polling place, there were about 30 people waiting in line when the polls opened at 7 a.m. at the Phillips Memorial Baptist Church. Several voters said they were on their way to work and wanted to vote in the morning because they expected longer lines later in the day.

The voting went smoothly during the first 15 minutes. Voters spent only a few minutes in the polling both to fill out the simple ballot.

After casting ballots, several people filled out slips of paper to disaffiliate from the party in which they voted.

In Providence, there was a 20-minute line at the Vartan Gregorian School in Fox Point. One voter in her running clothes said she couldn't wait. She said she would have to vote later with her husband after work.

At the Jewish Community Center on Elmgrove, there were four people on hand at 6:45 a.m., but by the time she had finished voting, Marisol Chavez said "the line was all the way down the stairs and probably out the door."

Her status as an unaffiliated voter seemed to complicate the process just a bit, as she was shuffled through a few different lines before she found the right person. And to boot, the voting pen was out of ink.

But she was willing to give poll staffers the benefit of the doubt.

"It was first thing in the morning."

At St. Joseph's Church in Pawtucket, 3-year-old junior projo.com correspondent Oliver Bartlett Parker went to vote with his father, Journal writer Paul Edward Parker.

"It's crowded here," the younger Parker reported.

The usually quiet polling place was filled to capacity just before 10 this morning, with all voting booths occupied, about 10 times as many ballots cast as usual for that time of day and a line of people waiting to have their disaffiliation affidavits signed.

Voters who are having trouble finding their polling place may search for it online to: http://www.sec.state.ri.us/vic

The Secretary of State's voter information hotline number is: 1-877-Go2 Vote (1-877-462-8683)

-- With reports from Journal staff writers Arline Fleming, Paul Davis and Paul Edward Parker, Journal business editor John Kostrzewa and projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson