UPDATED, 5:24: Gray threatened legal action if he got no response by 5 p.m.

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Board of Elections and Ethics spokeswoman Alysoun McLaughlin says Kenneth McGhie, the board's general counsel, is discussing the Gray campaign's complaints with their attorneys.

McLaughlin said the campaign is concerned with a small number of precincts. It would be possible for the board to extend hours at those precincts while closing the rest as scheduled at 8 p.m.

Board chairman Togo West has left the building after stopping by One Judiciary Square earlier.

In the Gray campaign's letter of complaint, they threatened legal action if the board didn't respond by 5 p.m.

UPDATED, 4:54 p.m. Paper ballots only at another Ward 4 precinct

More tap changing issues being reported at Coolidge High School (Precinct 59 in Ward 4). Shepherd Elementary was having a similar issue earlier today. So the precinct is currently using only paper ballots.

— Rebecca A. Cooper

UPDATED, 4:40 p.m.: Gray officially asks for poll extension

The Board of Elections and Ethics has received a letter from Vince Gray’s mayoral campaign asking them to extend the hours the polls will be open to 10 p.m.

The board and the Gray campaign are spreading markedly different pictures of the severity of the problems at polls throughout the District. The board says two polling places opened late this morning, and in both cases the delays lasted less than a half-hour. Gray aides told the Washington City Paper 50 voters were turned away at one precinct. The council chairman himself has called the board’s performance “abject incompetence.”

Rokey Suleman, the board’s executive director, said earlier the polls would close at 8 p.m. as scheduled, prompting Gray to accuse the board of contributing “to the disenfranchisement of people who did not get to vote.”

Among Gray’s laundry list of complaints about the polling process:

“Late openings of polling locations, in some cases by several hours.”

“Voters being turned away without reason or explanation.”

"Voters improperly denied access to polling location for failing to show identification.”

“Widespread failure of electronic voting machines”

Togo West, the board’s chairman, who had been visiting polling places around the District earlier in the day, said he anticipated the letter’s arrival.

“I’ve come from some polls and didn’t see any long lines,” West said. “I got to go to the right ones.”

Suleman said West and the board’s other member will consider the complaint.

The polls are scheduled to close at 8 p.m., and any extension is totally at the discretion of the board.

— Kevin Robillard

UPDATED 3:59 p.m. Turnout is still low; reasons unclear

Turnout throughout the District continues to be low, BOEE Director Rokey Suleman said.

Suleman said his counterparts in Maryland are also seeing lower turnout there, and the reasons why aren't exactly clear. The District implemented early voting for the first time this year, and about 26,000 total ballots were cast during the two-week early voting period. Determining the impact early voting had on the process won't be possible until all the votes are counted, Suleman said.

"I think some of it is early voting, certainly," Suleman said. "I don't know what goes on in the mind of the voter."

UPDATED, 3:53 p.m. Jack Evans says Fenty sounds "optimistic," says voting system "makes no sense"

D.C. Councilmember Jack Evans stopped by the polls at 15th St. Presbyterian Church in Ward 2 shortly after chatting with Fenty at another District church.

"He sounded pretty optimistic," Evans said.

Evans, however, sounded less than optimistic about the chances of learning the winner of today's primary by the end of the night, saying Washington's new early voting system "makes no sense."

Precinct Captain Robert Coggins said that as of 3 p.m., 616 ballots had been cast in this location, about 30 percent done electronically.

"They work as advertised," he said of the machines.

— Sarah Larimer

UPDATED, 3:50 p.m. Voting by limo in Ward 4 

The precincts offer the service for an election worker to come out to your car and bring you the paper vote for curbside voting, if you are not able to move around that well. This was in Ward 4.  — Rebecca A. Cooper

UPDATED, 3:10 p.m. Voting machine issues in Ward 4

The electronic voting machine has been down for almost an hour here at Shepherd Elementary, but a technician is on scene working on the problem.

The problem was related to the reloading of the paper tape that records the votes after they are entered on the touch screen. (Leave it to the paper and ink technology to throw a wrench in the works — why doesn't the machine just immediately transmit the results to BOE? Or better yet, to Twitter?)

Precinct election workers had trouble loading a new roll of the tape into the machine. The tape has been loaded and the machine is still down.

 More from Ward 4

--Rebecca Cooper

UPDATED, 3:04 p.m. Fenty dad sees the positive

Adrian Fenty is "feeling terrific." How does Fenty's dad Phil feel about things?

"If we wake up in the morning, we win," Phil Fenty told The Washington Post's Paul Schwartzman. "How can you lose? He's had a great four years."

UPDATED, 2:48 p.m., Prince George's County voters getting (new) fake ballots

Just as they had in the weeks leading up to the election, fake ballots were being handed out in Prince George's County today.

Denise Riley said she saw children handing out the ballots at Hyattsville Middle School. The group that created the ballots, Progress 2010, is associated with county executive candidate Michael Jackson, The Washington Post reported.

Riley said the ballot she received falsely suggested that Sen. Paul Pinsky had endorsed several candidates, including Jackson. The ballot also claimed to be the "Official Democratic Ballot," she said.

"People working for Pinsky were saying, 'This is the real ballot, that's the fake one,'" Riley said. "They very much look alike."

Read more

--Daniel Victor

UPDATED, 2:42 p.m. When will all this be over?

The BOEE expects results to start trickling around 8:30 p.m., assuming the 8 p.m. closing time for the polls isn't changed. That means full, unofficial results should be available between 11:30 p.m. and midnight.

--Kevin Robillard

UPDATED, 2:25 p.m., Fenty 'feeling terrific'

Fenty campaigned outside his former elementary school in Ward 1 early Tuesday afternoon, with a roll of green stickers in his pocket and an intense focus on passersby who happened to saunter by the red brick building.

"How you doing?" he asked one man, who was walking near the school. "Are you coming to vote?"

No dice. The man said he was headed to work, but also told Fenty that hadn't voted yet.

"Terrific, listen, we need you to vote by 8, and we need your support," Fenty said.

The man told Fenty that he could count on him.

He got a sticker.

"We're feeling terrific," Fenty said. "Great feedback, great support. People are really rallying behind the great results we've been able to offer."

-- Sarah Larimer

UPDATE, 2:05 p.m. DCBOEE downplays problems, plans to close polls on time

Board of Elections and Ethics Executive Director Rokey Suleman downplayed voting problems highlighted by the Gray campaign, saying the hiccups were expected as the District transitioned to new voting equipment.

Earlier today, Gray told the Washington City Paper he was considering asking for an extension to the voting hours because of the "abject incompetence" of the elections board. Gray aides said 50 people were turned away from a polling place in Ward 7, and Fenty aides said 70 people were turned away in Ward 6. Gray's campaign had said they planned on asking for the polls to stay open late.

Suleman said BOEE hadn't received a formal request from the Gray camp. "The polls are going to close at 8 p.m.," he said.

Gray expressed disappointment with the Board's position.

"I think that's a contribution to the disenfranchisement of people who did not get to vote, Gray says. "There's no question they were responsible for what happened today. The election workers even said as much. They should have accomodated people. If you keep one open, you have to keep them all open."

Suleman said there had been problems at around 15 or 20 of 143 precincts, but most weren't major. Most of the problems were related to poll workers being unfamiliar with the new equipment the District is using as it makes a raft of changes to its election laws. Other problems were related to miscommunication to poll workers regarding seals on some equipment. Suleman said those delays lasted less than a half-hour.

"Things are going very well," Suleman said.

--Kevin Robillard and Rebecca Cooper