On the news that President Obama will likely use his upcoming State of the Union address to again push for better voting conditions, the New York Times today runs the graph above about how long people are waiting, and who waits more. If you're not white, if you're a Democrat and if you live in a city, you're likely to face a longer wait. The more money you make, the less you stand to wait.
With the exception of Maryland and the District of Columbia, the states with the longest waits are under Republican control (adding: Montana has a Democratic governor). In one of those states, Virginia, Republicans in the Senate have put a new bill to limit wait times to an hour on indefinite hold.
To the extent that our problems with voting are pragmatic and not partisan, it's worth noting that early voting comes with longer wait times. Some of that is plainly partisan, in that Republicans in Florida cut the time for early voting (and Republicans in Ohio tried). To the extent that we, as a nation, can consider this a practical problem, we've got a growing number of practical solutions to consider -- including upgrades to voter registration, offering enough places and machines for voting, and setting a national standard for early voting.
(Image: New York Times)
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I can't help but wonder what would happen if you tried to make a bunch of rich white people stand in line to vote for 12 hours...
You know people with names like "Kipp" and "Muffy" the kind with "Type A" personalities who are positive their time and energy is somehow Vastly more important and that other people are impediments to their convenience...
Even if you didn't get a national standard out of it, it would at least be fun to watch
Just like the way every white collar collar criminal comes out of the slammer a prison and sentencing reform advocate. Things white Republicans don't experience don't exist.
Don't read too much causality into these categories. "Kipp" and "Muffy" live in less urban areas with fewer people, fewer people =shorter lines.
I'd like to be there w/ a video camera
I'd like to be there w/ a video camera to watch them twitch and pace around like caged rats on uppers waiting for a scientific experiment.
Dave
I used to live in California. Lived in LA, SF and Sac not to mention the tiny town I grew up in. I never had to wait in line longer than 30 min to vote. It's not about urban areas vs. rural areas it's a matter of infrastructure and support for the system.
In dealing with the "GOTP & voting" never, ever talk about practical, rational, logical or fair. These aren't terms that they're familar with, it's hard to "be fair" when you're attempting to maintain power by any means necessary....
The "overall average" is wildly misleading. It's like having a 150 lb person in a room with a 600 pound person and saying the average weight for people in this room is morbidly obese.
Don't tell us the overall averages, give us the worst of the worst, the 10-12 hour wait times, the stuff that that is patently undemocratic. Because JSP I'm-A-Makey-and-They're-The-Takers sees that, he's gonna think, what, 15-20 minutes to vote ain't so bad, it's your civic duty, hey, gives you a reason to be late for work, why so many people bitching?
And, of course, they're the people who thing a degree or three's increase in mean global temperature is no big deal because, hey, there's no real difference between a day when it's 70 and a day when it's 71.
Just mimic California.
I live in California and I can't remember a time when I stood in line. The voting booth is usually at a garage across the street from my house, in other words there are plenty and voting is easy. Now we can absentee vote starting weeks before the election.
I was tempted to post a picture of 2 wine glasses and a view of my garden as my "2012 voting experience", but I thought it would seem crass given the long lines elsewhere.
I don't live in CA but I also understand that the districts are not "fixed" by what ever party is in power in the state. I wish that this was true nationally as well. I think we should aim for fair districts arranged by a bi-partisan group that has no other political ambitions.
I live in Virginia, in a heavily Democratic county and it took me THREE HOURS to vote last November! I voted on election day, I didn't get to do early voting. In 2008, in what was supposedly a higher-turnout election, it took about half as long.
I've voted in every kind of election held in Canada for the last forty years...sometimes early voting...I've NEVER waited more then five minutes...just sayin....
Ah, but you live in a country with grownups.
It probably took me longer to walk from my car to the door than it took me to vote. Wish everyone had the same experience.
Virginia is about to pass a law allowing anyone over 65 to vote absentee, no reason needed. That is a step in the right direction. Hopefully they won't vote for Ken Kookienutty.
Texas allows those over 65 to absentee vote.
Love Washington we are fully Absentee
Yes I too love how we vote in Washington (state). Why should there be an age requirement for a mail-in ballot, and why do you need *good* reason. I don't think we have any fraud and we have ZERO lines. I'm old (62) I still couldn't mail in a ballot in Texas? weird to me. We register to vote like anyone else and have to sign our ballot envelop when we mail it in. Now our legislature is hearing a proposal to make the ballots postage paid since college students say stuff like I don't know where to get a stamp.
Thats because they know the elderly tend to vote Republican.
Maybe there are some brave federal and state judges that will find undue lengthy wait times are a violation of the Voting Rights Act. I am not sure if that law can be applied to all voters regardless of their minority status. But it would certainly put the SCOTUS in a very difficult position to have to rule on such a case even if it applied only to constitutionally protected minorities.
Let's skip all the upgrades to voting processes from the 70's to the 90's (x's to mechanical machines to hanging chads) and skip right to internet voting. It is technically possible to ensure security (the banks can do it!!), significantly cheaper and would likely increase voting rates by 20-30% if people could do it from home! If only those who chose to vote in person instead of via internet were in line, they would be really really short!
There are logical reasons for some of the different delay times. Early voting has far fewer places to vote but must cover everyone in the county. So checkin for each voter takes longer. The longest wait times are during the first 2 hours on election day. After the early rush the flow becomes more steady and wait times go down.
It's probably easier and quicker to buy a gun in some of these states than it is to vote. Scary ...
Agreed.
Texas has such a long early voting period that unless you go on the first day of early voting or election day you aren't going to have much of a wait.
Being white dosent mean we spend less time voting. Its a CORRELATION. Two occurrences that are related. I for one, am a white caucasian male who voted. I spent 0 minutes in line voting. Hows that possible you say?
An absente Ballot! I took my time to research and sign up for a absente ballot because I didn't want to wait in line!
Point is we cannot assume stats are all-telling. We must be able to draw conclusions (critically think) about information and other sources.
We have vote by mail for everyone in Oregon. Never any waiting and you can drop your ballot off at the library or town hall and save the cost of a stamp. Why can't other states do the same?
Other states could do it but then Republicans will argue MoveOn.org committed fraud with those ballots. /snark
I live in Washington. The longest I've ever had to wait to vote was the length of time it took me to clear the kitchen table to spread out my ballot.