Voters at polling stations near Philadelphia-area college campuses reported waiting in line for more than two hours on Tuesday, prompting poll watchers to request longer hours and even prompting actor Paul Rudd to provide water to the Distributing people in line.

Voter turnout in precincts on and near college campuses was expected to increase compared to 2020, when many students lived off campus amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

But lines at polling stations near several campuses were far longer than usual at other polling locations in the region, with some voters reporting waits of two hours or more. At a polling place near Lehigh University in Bethlehem, some said they waited up to seven hours.

“It was brutal,” said Brendan Xanthos, 19, an engineering student from Lehigh. “But I feel like it was necessary. … I've been waiting for this since I was a child. As long as my vote counts, that’s all I care about.”

And at a precinct near the Villanova campus in Delaware County, more than 200 people lined up outside at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday. Many of them were students who waited more than 90 minutes to vote.

The ACLU unsuccessfully filed a lawsuit Tuesday night asking a judge to extend voting at the Villanova site by two hours until 10 p.m., saying the county failed to provide adequate support. According to the filing, only three machines were provided to cover two voting departments. A judge rejected the request.

“Districts know from history that students run in presidential elections, and they should have been better prepared,” Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said in a statement.

Jim Allen, the Delaware County elections director, said the county sent more resources to polling places in Villanova at midday. The slowdown, he said, was partly due to newly registered voters having problems on their registration applications — such as a missing apartment number.

While these problems could be fixed at the polling place and didn't matter to the majority of voters, they slowed the process for everyone, Allen said.

“In most neighborhoods, there aren’t a lot of young people registering for the first time in this jurisdiction,” Allen said. “Except on campus, that’s where you come across it.”

The students passed the time. Some threw Frisbees and ate Mexican food and pizza on the curb as Miley Cyrus' “7 Things” played from a large speaker and a news helicopter hovered overhead.

Rudd, a New Jersey native known for his roles in I love you, man and the Ant-man franchise, attended both Villanova and Temple. He declined to speak to a reporter in North Philadelphia but told MSNBC that he was there to hand out water and encourage voters to stay in line.

“It's a wonderful thing that all these young people aren't voting,” Rudd said. “We did a lot here in Pennsylvania today. We wanted to come out and tell these students that they are doing really great things.”

Emily Prus, 19, a Villanova freshman, waited in line for two hours. She said she was willing to wait to vote “blue.”

“People keep talking about how important Pennsylvania is. “It feels like we are the main characters in this election,” she said. Prus also took a selfie with Rudd.

“This water,” she added, “is from Paul Rudd.”

At the back of the line was Connor Redman, 21, a computer science student who may have had to wait two and a half hours because so much was at stake in the election.

“I'm going to get some work and settle in,” said Redman, who declined to say who he was voting for but planned to split his votes. Redman said the economy was his biggest issue and he wanted to vote to “fix our country.”

” READ MORE: Philly turnout was high all morning, Democrats say 'there were lines everywhere I went'

Students also waited in long lines at Lehigh University, about 60 miles north of Philadelphia. At 5:40 p.m., 18-year-old Baylee Baker said she had been in line for half an hour and was expecting a long wait.

“I have friends who came here when they were 12,” she said. “The snake wrapped around the building.”

She said she was determined to stay in line as long as necessary, encouraged by appearances from Rudd and actor Jonathan Groff, plenty of pizza and water and what she said was a crucial election.

“If Trump is elected, I fear for America and for my future in America,” she said.

Machie Madden, 54, volunteered to drive college students from Lehigh's Bethlehem campus to their polling place at the Banana Factory Arts Center as part of a Lehigh Democrat voter campaign. Her son is enrolled in school and she dropped him off at the polling station around 10:15 a.m

At that time, a line formed “around and around the building,” she said in a telephone interview. He couldn't vote for six hours.

At Bright Hope Baptist Church near Temple University, the line of voters rolled down North 12th Street to Cecil B. Moore Avenue around 4:30 p.m.

Kishi Deji-Roberts, 18, a freshman at Temple, said she stood in line at the church for more than two hours. Deji-Roberts said she voted for Vice President Kamala Harris because, as the daughter of immigrants, she was turned off by former President Donald Trump's promise to launch a mass deportation program.

“I don’t want this to happen to them,” she said of her parents.

Inquirer staff writers Ariana Perez-Castells and Zoe Greenberg contributed to this article.