Democrats began the new session on Tuesday by relocating the entire House chamber to a converted polling station in Prince William County, Virginia, after leaders decided that a blue wave should be experienced at street level. Members were bused in before dawn, issued cardboard voting booths and asked to queue behind a folding table marked with the names of the committees.
Speaker's office staff said the arrangement would remain in place until the first bill passes, which is expected to take several weeks. Each vote requires members to wait for their turn, sign a paper slip, and feed it into a plastic box, a procedure the chamber's clerk described as the most democratic thing the building has done in decades.
Republicans, who were not consulted, arrived at the polling station in protest and were given provisional ballots. Two senators spent the morning in a corner booth attempting to find the Senate, while a deputy whip reportedly began building a second queue for the committee on defense. Local shops have since opened pop-up stalls selling coffee to members who have been waiting since sunrise.
"We are not going to move back until every seat in the country has been counted," said the House chief administrative officer, who has ordered that the chamber's marble floors be relaid as a parking lot to accommodate the overflow.