CROWN POINT | Election fever simmered Tuesday in the Gary, Hammond and East Chicago county courthouses in which early in-person voting finally opened following a week of courtroom battles.

MORE: Read Lake County Circuit Court Judge Lorenzo Arredondo's ruling on early voting centers

Long lines of voters, many of them supporters of Democratic presidential nominee U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, formed in those cities' courthouses as county elections officials turned on electronic voting machines about mid-afternoon.

Republicans sued last week to have early voting centers in the predominantly Democratic cities declared illegal, but the GOP efforts ended in defeat Tuesday when Lake County Circuit Court Judge Lorenzo Arredondo ordered the locations open. Then Superior Court Judge Calvin Hawkins refused a GOP request to close the locations in a Tuesday afternoon hearing.

Republicans said they would file a new lawsuit before the Indiana Supreme Court in an effort to overturn the satellite early voting.