BOZEMAN, Mont. — Voters stranded on a snowy sidewalk for hours after polls closed in a Montana college town created an encouraging scene as they slowly made their way along the line to ballot drop boxes inside the county courthouse.

They huddled under blankets and ate chips, nuts and pizza distributed by volunteers. They swayed to an impromptu street DJ, waved glow sticks, and remembered a few facts: This is a college town, and hanging out late at night for a good cause is fun—even in the teeth-chattering cold.

Rrr-Right?

The hardy residents of Bozeman, Montana, lined up in their hundreds along Main Street on election night; Democrats, Republicans and independents shared a not-so-brief moment of camaraderie and warmth to close out an otherwise searing election season.

Among them was Davor Danevski, a 38-year-old tech worker who wore a puffy jacket and a thin pair of gardening gloves. He had waited nearly five hours early Wednesday morning.

“I missed the last two elections because I lived abroad in Europe. I didn’t want to miss a third election,” Danevski said. “A lot of people don’t take this as seriously as they should.”

The polls closed at 20:00. The last vote was made by a determined voter at 4:00 in the morning.

The long wait is chalked up to Montana’s recent population growth clashing with people waiting until the last minute to register to vote, change their addresses on file or get a new ballot. Most of the voters in Montana State University’s hometown were students.

Gallatin County’s growth of nearly 40% since 2010 meant that 10 election workers crammed into one office were woefully inadequate to handle all the last-minute voter registrations and changes.

“The building is not built yet… It is not designed to house all the people that Gallatin County has in every election. So we need to do something about it,” County Clerk Eric Semerad said of the structure, which was built in 1935.

As darkness fell, showers began to increase and temperatures dropped into the 20s (minus 15 degrees Celsius), Kael Richards, 22, a project engineer for a concrete company, took her place at the back of the line next to a friend.

He appreciated the food and hand warmers distributed before finally voting at 1 a.m. He estimated he had been in line for seven to eight hours by then.

“The people down there were very nice people,” Richards said Wednesday. “We thought about throwing in the towel, but we were almost to the point where we were already here, so why not?”

The county clerk asked county emergency officials to help the crowd because it was snowing. They blocked the road next to the courthouse and set up tents with heaters inside. “It was great,” Semerad said.

It was difficult to gauge the exact length of the line as it snaked along the sidewalk and into the road and through the tent. He continued up the courthouse stairs, squeezing into a doorway, around an open lobby, up some more stairs, past rows of glass cases filled with artifacts, and finally into the office of election workers who were working late.

Semerad said that in past elections, lines have gone past midnight, but never as late as Tuesday. Many of those waiting could have jumped the line and cast provisional votes but chose to do so.

As midnight rolled around, Danevsky was patiently waiting for his turn to start up the courthouse steps. For him, the long hours were worth it.

“You should always try to vote if possible,” he said.