SAN DIEGO -- Voters casting ballots in San Diego County Tuesday were confronted with long lines, light rain, overzealous campaigns and balky voting machines, according to election officials.

There were numerous reports of lines stretching behind buildings and around blocks at the more than 1,400 area polling places in the first hour of voting.

"We're looking at a very good turnout," Registrar of Voters Deborah Seiler said late Tuesday morning.

She said one polling place in University City opened about a half-hour late.

Seiler said she cast her ballot around 10 a.m. at her own Kearny Mesa polling place, where she found a couple of people in booths, but no line.

Seiler said poll workers told her they opened the door at 7 a.m. to a line of voters, and had seen about 200 people file through prior to her arrival.

A local TV station reported a long line for the first hour at the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in East San Diego.

10News reported similar long early lines at a polling place in Hillcrest.

"I'm glad there is such a long line," one woman told 10News. "It should always be like this."

Turnout was strong through the day at the University of California, San Diego, and San Diego State University, according to the county's Sonja Schmidt.

"There's been some issues with electioneering too close to the polls," Schmidt said.

No political activity is allowed within 100 feet of polling places, Schmidt said.

She said there were also some voting machines with inoperable touch screens that needed to be replaced, but the problem was not widespread.

The Registrar of Voters office does not keep a running tally of voter turnout during the day, but as many as 80 percent of those eligible are expected to cast ballots, which would be the highest since before 1980, Seiler said.

A record 19,778 people cast ballots early at the Registrar of Voters Office, according to county spokeswoman Tammy Glenn.

Nearly 400,000 mail-in ballots of the 660,000 that were issued had been returned and scanned into the vote-tally system by Election Day, the registrar said. That compares to 212,000 mail-in ballots four years ago.

Results from those ballots will be released when the polls close at 8 p.m., she said.

Complete results probably won't be available until late Tuesday night, Seiler said.

Poll workers are prepared to be faced with lines up to a half-hour-long at closing time, and all those then in line will be allowed to vote, she said.

The workers will then have to tally signatures and reconcile the number of ballots handed out compared to the number returned -- all before the counting can begin, Seiler said.

"It takes time," she said.