PHOTOS: America Votes ... At Pools, Art Museums And Laundromats

By Camila Domonoske / NPR

Published November 8, 2016 at 2:49 PM PST

This story was published more than 8 years ago.

People cast their votes at Echo Park Pool in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

A man casts his vote at The Mummers Museum in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

At the Brooklyn Museum in New York City, voters got a side of art as they filled out their ballots Tuesday.

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Yoga instructor Rachel Jackson (left) leads a free yoga session for voters outside a polling place at Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

A pair of urns look out at people voting at the Neptune Society Columbarium in San Francisco on Tuesday. The columbarium was built in 1898 and is four stories tall, with thousands of niches for cremated remains.

People vote at the Los Angeles lifeguard station at Venice Beach on Tuesday.

Voters cast ballots at Su Nueva Lavanderia, a laundromat in Chicago, on Tuesday.

Voters cast their ballots in a polling location inside Mike's TV and Appliance in State College, Pa., on Tuesday.

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Democratic polling judge John Ramirez (right) is reflected in a mirror as he assists a voter filling out her ballot at Delia's Beauty Salon in Chicago on Tuesday.

Millions of Americans cast their votes Tuesday.

But only a few got to do it next to a surfboard — or a sitar.

Here are a few of the more unusual, interesting or beautiful polling places that were open.

The Mummers Museum in Philadelphia honors the city's traditional annual Mummers Parade with "costumes, oral histories, video and audio archives and even an exhibit to teach anyone how to 'strut.' "

The Brooklyn Museum is New York City's second-largest art museum.

The Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel was a polling place with perks: The hotel offered valet parking, free breakfast, live sitar music and complimentary yoga classes, Time Out reports.

The Neptune Society Columbarium is a neoclassical four-story rotunda that also happens to be one of the last remaining cemeteries in San Francisco.

The lifeguard station at Venice Beach has been used as a polling station for years. In 2008, a local blog wrote that some residents come vote in wetsuits — either before or after their surf sessions.

A multitude of small businesses double as polling places. Hoagie shops in Philadelphia, a billiards hall in Chicago, diners and laundromats from coast to coast. In State College, Pa., some voters could check out the latest washing machines at a local appliance shop as they cast their ballots.

On Twitter, one San Francisco resident reported that she cast her vote inside the cable car engineering and repair warehouse.

Then, of course, there are polling places that are remarkable not for the buildings, but for the views that come with them.

There are plenty more fascinating polling places out there — Mother Jones notes that astronauts cast ballots from the International Space Station, while polling places here on Earth include a ski lodge, a wildlife refuge, multiple bocce courts and quite a few personal homes or garages.

At least one photographer has been inspired by America's proliferation of polling places.

In 2012, NPR talked to Ryan Donnell, whose project "Behind the Curtain" documents unexpected polling places — from bars and barbershops to funeral homes and skating rinks.

"It turned out that the images were a great representation of the diversity in our country," he told NPR at the time. "It's personal to me. I love politics, democracy, and I love this country."

If you can't get enough of the quirky places people cast ballots, Reuters has even more photos, from grocery stores to car dealerships.