Butler County residents braved chilly weather, fought through traffic and even missed the Bengals game Sunday to let their voices be heard during the last weekend for early voting.

More than 3,700 people came to the Butler County Board of Elections to place their votes between Friday and Sunday. At 2 p.m. Sunday, a line of more than 100 people wound outside of the board of elections building waiting for the chance to vote.

“I honestly thought I’d beat the crowd,” said Randy Jones of Hamilton, as he stood in line Sunday. “I thought ‘The polls will be packed on Tuesday but nobody’d come on a Sunday.’ Can you imagine what it will be like on Election Day?”

More than 1,500 people had come to the polls on Saturday and more than 500 came in the first two hours of early voting on Sunday, said Jocelyn Bucaro, deputy director of the Butler County Board of Elections. More than 1,700 people came on Friday.

“This has far exceeded the busiest day we had in 2008,” Bucaro said.

More than 49,000 people had voted early between coming to the board of elections or sending in absentee ballots, Bucaro said.

Traffic backed up from the board’s office on Princeton Road all the way to Ohio 129, finally necessitating a Butler County sheriff’s deputy to direct traffic. Otherwise, the process had gone smoothly, Bucaro said.

“It’s a little cold, but the line seems to be moving fast,” said Betty Davis of Middletown, who had stood in line for about a half hour outside, zippered up tightly in a winter coat, and was only about halfway to the election board’s door.

Davis said she was glad for the chance to vote early because she has to work on Tuesday and found trying to get to the polls to be “a real pain.”

“It just makes more sense to have an election day on the weekend anyway,” Davis said.

Both Davis and Jones said they wanted to vote because of how important they felt the election was.

“Everybody’s said Ohio could decide the race,” Jones said. “That’s why you can’t turn on the TV without seeing an ad for the election. We’re real important to the future of the country.”

The Butler County Board of Elections will be open for early voting today from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The regular polling places will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.