People waited up to six hours to cast votes in the 2020 presidential primary on Super Tuesday in California and Texas.

Texas has closed hundreds of polling stations in the last decade, leaving long lines at the remaining locations.

In California, broken voting machines and a new voting process that allowed voters to go to any polling station they found convenient led to "chaos," one voter told Insider.

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Voters in Texas and California faced hours-long waits at the polls on Super Tuesday as they tried to cast their votes in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary elections.

Amid reports of broken ballot machines, fewer voting precincts, and revamped voting processes, people waited up to six hours into into Wednesday morning to cast their votes in precincts across both states.

Yadira Esquivel, an 18-year-old first-time voter in Edinburg, Texas, told Insider that she waited in line for three hours, and then was written up at work for being two hours late to her shift at her job.

Texas officials have shut down hundreds of polling stations in the last decade — disproportionately in areas where people of color live — creating longer lines at those that remain open.

"It felt ridiculous to be waiting that long in the line, I felt as if the process could've been much smoother and faster than it turned out to be," she told Insider over Twitter direct message. "I almost got out of line too, and I saw a few people get out since the wait was too long … but I kept my hopes up and needed to cast my vote."

People line up to vote at a polling station on Super Tuesday in Santa Monica, California. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

'The room was too small, too few machines, the new voting system is tricky.'

Dawn Serpa, a 53-year-old voter in Santa Monica, California, told Insider that some voting machines at her precinct were broken, which appeared to be an issue elsewhere in Los Angeles too, USA Today reported. Los Angeles County also recently changed its approach to voting, letting people vote at whatever polling center was most convenient for them.

Serpa waited four hours to vote on Tuesday, and many others at the polling station did too.

"Initially people were very excited. Many expressed a strong desire to wait as look as it took," she told Insider. "As people approached the door to vote it was obvious that the room was chaotic and disorganized. There were only two working machines in the back. The flow of traffic coming in to drop off ballots added to the confusion. The room was too small, too few machines, the new voting system is tricky."

Serpa said that she saw several people leave the polling line because they were unable to miss work, something Washington Post sources saw too.

She recommended that come November, polling stations should only be in large facilities, like schools, churches, and community centers.

To make things run more smoothly, she said, polling stations should make sure their machines are operating, and voters should be aware of machine instructions ahead of Election Day.

Zane Romano and a group he befriended in line took a selfie when they reached the voting station front door — after 4 hours of waiting

Zane Romano, a 32-year-old in Sherman Oaks, California, told Insider he waited four hours and 14 minutes to cast his vote on Tuesday, but he didn't seem discouraged by the wait time.

"I've only lived in the community for eight months and it was nice to see the community in general, and so many people come out across the spectrum, age ranges, young and old, diverse. It was cool to see that," Romano, who recently moved to California from Chicago, told Insider.

He said that about an hour into the wait, he called his 94-year-old grandmother, who had one strict instruction: "Do not get out of line."

So he stayed, and for the remainder of his time in line, he chatted with the strangers around him, who eventually became friends.

"We just talked to each other," Romano said of the nurse, musician, and kindergarten teacher he befriended while waiting. "We took a selfie when we made it to the front door."

He said volunteers passed out pizza during the wait, but because he's vegan he had a friend drop off Chinese food.

When Romano left the polling station just after 9pm he said there were another 300 or so people still waiting in line to vote.

In Houston, the last man to vote at Texas Southern University waited 6 hours to cast his ballot

In Houston, Texas, one man waited more than six hours to vote, and didn't walk out of the polling station until after 1 a.m. on Wednesday.

Hervis Rogers, the last person to cast a vote at Texas Southern University in Houston, said he watched results on his phone as he waited in line.

"I wanted to get my vote in, voice my opinion. I wasn't going to let anything stop me, so I waited it out," Rogers told KTRK.