Dozens wait to cast their ballots, at around 10 a.m. Kenneth Barnes: "I just want the world to be a better place." Dozens of New Haveners lined up on the second floor of City Hall Monday morning to cast the city’s first early ballots in this year’s long-coming presidential election. Early voting began at 10 a.m. in Meeting Room 2 at 165 Church St. at City Hall, and will go until 6 p.m. Eligible voters can cast their ballots early at City Hall from Monday through Nov. 3 in advance of the Nov. 5 general election day. Click here and here for more details on where and when to cast your vote, and to figure out who’s on the ballot. (Hint: It’s not just Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.)This will be the third election in New Haven in 2024 that will have an early voting option after its implementation statewide this year. It follows the presidential preference primaries in early April and a set of primaries for state representative and U.S. Senate in August.Outside the room on Monday, a line of voters went down the hall and around the corner, nearly stretching to the Mayor’s Office. Voters were called into the room in groups of three to five to vote. Those who were not registered to vote could go to a separate section of the room where they could register with proof of residence and I.D. Voting moderators helped voters at one of five stations, where they checked voters’ registration. Then, voters were given their ballots and escorted to a private booth to select their candidates. Finally, they scanned their ballots and placed them in a black box. Before they left, voters were given an ​“I VOTED” sticker.Though the wait was largely quiet, some struck up conversations with those around them. Some read books while waiting in line — one read recent Nobel Prize-winning Han Kang’s The Vegetarian. Others reviewed the candidates they planned on voting for on news outlets, including the Independent. Kenneth Barnes, 68, got in line to vote early at around 12:15 p.m. Monday.“I feel good,” he said about casting his ballot a good two weeks before election day. It’s nice to have more opportunities to vote than just on one ​“set time” on the first Tuesday in November. He said he was happy to see a long line of fellow New Haveners coming to City Hall to vote Monday, too.How’s he feeling about this year’s presidential election? ​“A lot of controversy,” he said. ​“I just want the world to be a better place.” He said he grew up in North Carolina, and is used to a certain civility in interpersonal actions. He finds that wholly missing from today’s intensely polarized national politics. ​“If we can’t get together in government, how we gonna get together as people?” he lamented.And who does he plan on voting for? ​“It’s no secret. I’m a Democrat. I’m going with Harris,” he said. ​“I think we need a change,” he added, and Harris to him represents more of a change than former President Trump. ​“We’ve already seen what it was like” when he was in office, Barnes concluded. It’s time for someone different to be in charge.Two voters, a man and a woman who did not want to be named, toward the front of the line, expressed their support for Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, as well. The woman wore a warm yellow shirt and the man had a baby stroller with him, his child sleeping inside. For the woman, her vote for Harris was largely to protect her ​“social security.” And the man spoke more broadly, saying that he wanted to have a return to ​“normal politics.” He noted the recent vice presidential debate between Tim Walz and J.D. Vance as a reminder that political parties could disagree while being respectful.“For me, can we go back to having more normal politics? Can we have functioning adults in office instead of crazy people? That would be nice,” the man said. Standing just a few spots behind the two was a man wearing a classic red ​“MAKEAMERICAGREATAGAIN” hat. The man said he had been a Democrat his entire life until last year. At that point, he was frustrated with the inflation that we ​“didn’t have…under Trump.” He also did not agree with what he described as Biden’s weak border policy, saying that the country needs stronger border security. “I want the borders closed,” the man said. ​“I want our country to control who comes here.”The man said he is thankful for the early voting option, as he would be out of the country on Nov. 5. Two women leaving the voting site said that they were voting early ​“just to get it over with.” Another man said he’d rather vote early than have something happen to his vote on such a hectic time as election day, where more people would be voting. Voting Moderator Dominic Tammaro compared early voting to absentee voting. According to Tammaro, early voting is more final than absentee voting. Absentee ballots are not opened until election day, allowing indecisive absentee voters to go in and change their votes before election day if needed. But for early voting, such amendments are not allowed.“Early voting is technically like election day,” Tammaro said. ​“You vote, you’re done.”Tammaro showed support for early day voting, noting the flexibility the extended two-week voting period offers to voters’ schedules.Sign guiding voters to voting site. 5 early voting-reserved parking spaces on Church Street outside City Hall ... ... and five more over on Temple Street by the public library.