I'm hearing Rachel talk about the "poll tax" of extremely long lines, what's a good solution?

[Seen the light]

I'm genuinely ignorant about this problem. Are there good ways to shorten wait times that are feasible? Is it just to simply add more polling booths? If it's that simple, why not just do that? I don't get it.

[Wapsie B]

One solution would be to vote like Oregon does, by mail.

[Seen the light]

7. I'm curious about that, is there a website that explains pros/cons of mail-in voting?

I've always wondered about votes getting lost in the mail, stolen out of mailboxes and such. It seems like it would be hard to implement nationwide on the surface.

[Wapsie B]

22. I don't know.

Maybe there's an Oregon voting site that explains it better. Yeah, I could see problems with mailbags full of votes getting "lost" in strategic areas.

[billyoc]

1. Yes, add more booths. The only reason for not doing it is the desire to keep people from voting.

[MrsBrady]

14. yep

areas need to put in more booths and get more workers.

there is no need for long lines. it's complete bull.

[trayfoot]

26. AMEN! And ALL states need to have early voting with adequate facilities!

[Window]

28. Absolutely bull! This is America for Christ's sake.

[izzie]

29. What is the problem ? Just that or is it the states are cheap?

I swear half the time people are more in line with the b----ing than paying for anything to be done right. I hope I will not have to wait long as I need a ride to and back from the polls. In all the years I have voted only once have I had to wait for hours. Next time should be even more interested as I have read that Bush has sort of cut off the money that goes for the next cen. count and that being done badly will play into the way we vote for years. If you do not know who is living around you it is hard to set up how many will vote. The thinking of the 'crazies' in the power part of the GOP is beyond me.

[GregD]

2. Make election day a federal holiday is a good start, or Saturday.

Cut this crap of having to compete with inflexible work schedules.

[OhioBlue]

6. bingo!!! n/t

[musicblind]

18. I agree! GOOD solution. Make it a required holiday. n/t

[ecstatic]

27. Some people work on holidays and weekends (ie. fast food workers)

So that won't help. WAY more machines and WAY more locations. That's the only fair way to solve the problem.

[GregD]

34. There will always be shift workers, such as medical care

but if you move voting to a day where most people don't work, one way or another, you eliminate the penalty that many pay by having to take off work - both to vote as well as to volunteer to help. Plus by making it mandatory, if the choice was to make a weekday voting holiday, you eliminate the bastard employers who are too cheap to let people have the time off to exercize their right to vote.

[Hippo_Tron]

39. Early voting in every state would be great as well

[BumRushDaShow]

3. I keep complaining about this too.

But it's obvious that these machines cost money and municipalities obviously don't have enough to adequately equip polling sites. For those who have paper ballots, I expect this isn't an issue.

[TheDonkey]

4. It costs more money to add more polling booths (and that IS the solution)

and states don't want to pay up. But NEWSFLASH to the states, they better fucking pay up and ensure that people are not standing in line for over 2 hours to vote. This is the FOUNDATION of our country. PERIOD.

I'm glad she gave this a special comment. Democrats should be ashamed for not making this an issue before now but hopefully something will be done.

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

5. The mail-in system they have in Oregon.

[corkhead]

8. they could have done that. There are not enough machines for the number of voters

Why that happened? I don't know, but they didn't make enough voting machines availble for the number of voters. Far less than what is available for election day

[salonghorn70]

9. I Don't Have A Solution

but it seems that the whole idea of of election reform might be one that we will want to think about. I thought that it was interesting that not one question was asked about this in the debates.

[crazylikafox]

10. You're kidding, right? I live in a wealthy area. I NEVER have to wait more than 15 min. to vote

It's voter suppression, pure and simple. There should be some kind of LAW requiring a certain percentage of polling booths per person, based on registered voters in each precinct.

[nosillies]

20. Weird thing -- the early voting place in the wealthy area near me has the longest waits

I went across town to vote because the lines were shorter in the "bad" area. Still long, mind you, but shorter than in the upscale area.

[stray cat]

11. Voting lines lasting 10 hours in dem areas can change poll results

More people in Ohio in 2004 gave up waiting in long lines than separated Kerry from the presidency

They love to make college students wait for hours to discourage them from voting - also done in Ohio in 2004

[Missouri Girl]

12. I think 2 things -

Paper ballots that can be scanned and saved as a trail. Paper can be filled out, no need for more equipment, electricity, easy set up (pencils and a table).

Early voting. We don't have early voting here in Missouri - Baby Blunt knows that if early voting is allowed, more folks in KC and St. Louis, our hard working middle class, would have more opportunities to vote. We can't have that because they would trend Dem.

[Occam Bandage]

17. Optical scan is cheaper, yeah. Electronic voting machines feel like corporate welfare.

There's no advantage; they're just more expensive.

[GregD]

33. Just to clarify, they are all electronic systems

I think your point was to refer to touch screen systems, which I largely agree on, and that optical scan allows more (inexpensive) ballot stations with a single scanner per precinct. But it's all still currently privatized voting and we need to end that too.

[Occam Bandage]

40. Yes, you know what I meant. Touchscreen.

[demodonkey]

41. OpScan is NOT software-dependent. We can get a statistically significant audit of the paper.

Nothing is perfect, but we can NOT go into another federal election with these damn touchscreens anywhere.

No matter what happens Tuesday, the work begins Nov. 5

[GregD]

43. I'm sorry, but you are flatly wrong

The optical scan systems do rely upon sofware, specifically firmware which is require to be compliant to certification procedures. On top of that there is the ballot programming software which knows what to do with the scan results. Every block equates to a race and a candidate, and the ballot code (not certified) knows just what to do with that.

For an example of where ballot programming went bad, see this map http://www.votersunite.org/info/mapVoteSwitch.pdf

[demodonkey]

44. I'm sorry but YOU are flatly wrong. Opscan can be counted BY HUMAN EYE, touchscreen cannot.

Because it CAN be hand counted -- and hand audited -- the results on optical scan are not software dependent.

DRE absolutely MUST be counted by software, there is no other way.

How about we all go out now and work on the election, K?

[Political Tiger]

13. I vote by absentee ballot

because I have a medical condition that prevents me from standing up for long periods. That's one solution, but even that has problems.....for instance, here in my county, it costs over $1 in postage to mail it back. I don't mind paying the postage but that could be considered a poll tax as well, especially for older people on a fixed income.

[Occam Bandage]

15. Add more booths. People don't do that because that gets expensive.

[progressivebydesign]

16. National voting by mail. It's the only way. Oregon is all mail voting and it works.

That is the only way to make this fair to all cities and towns and counties. Nationalize and bipartisanize it into a mail-only system.

[Nipper1959]

19. The simple solution is

A standardized ballot, on paper. Fill in the ovals just like on standardized tests. Trash all touch screens. Adequately staff all polling places. If this were happening in a third world country the UN would be supervising the election. It is a fucking disgrace that people have to wait for hours to vote.

[Puzzler]

21. Yes... that's exactly what the solution is...

... just copy Canada's voting system, for example:

1) More polling places (way more)

2) PAPER ballots!

3) Same ballot format nationwide!!! (with different candidates, of course)




It's actually very simple! The US has to reform it's presidential polling system... not just a little, a lot.

[Foolacious]

31. Yep, it's so easy and fast in Canada.

In our last national election, a few weeks ago, I stopped by our local polling place after work. There were two people ahead of me, so it took me a whole three minutes to get checked off on the voting roll, get my paper ballot, make my X, and put it in the box. By the way, the entire campaign lasted about 5 or 6 weeks.

(For the record, I voted in the US election by absentee ballot three weeks ago -- in Colorado, the state of most recent US residence, and a swing state!)

[NYC_SKP]

23. NVLB: No Voter Left Behind. The FEC needs to require states to revamp...

....and soon.

This administration "Obama" would be the first in a long time to be willing to proactively pressure these loser states to get their shit together, they can tie it to federal funding if they like.

It's long overdue and the only thing missing has bee the will to do it.

NYC_SKP

[cameozalaznick]

24. Okay, here's the deal on long lines for early voting.

These machines have to be programmed to handle every precinct. And apparently it takes a while to program the machines. So, they can only program so many machines for early voting and then they bring out the rest on election day. There is apparently not enough time to reprogram all the machines between the end of early voting and election day.

Let's say that county X has 100 machines for the whole election. Let's say they have 20 precincts with 5 early voting sites. And they decide to put two machines in each early voting site. Then they can only deploy 10 machines for early voting. But on election day, they'll be able to deploy the other 90. But those 10 will not be used because they can't be re-programmed in time.

At least this is how my county elections administrator explained it. He's a Dem by the way, and I believe him.

It's not really some nefarious plot to keep people from voting. It's just money. The answer is to buy more machines, but a lot of counties are running deficits and can't afford more machines right now.

There will be lines on election day, but in most places it won't be like for early voting because each entity will have a higher complment of machines.

[Brooklyns_Finest]

25. Absentee Ballot

All registered voters should have absentee ballots with prepaid postage sent to their homes. Absentee ballots should not be mandatory, but giving people options is the best bet. Saturday AND Sunday voting would also help.

[Tutonic]

30. Hand out box lunches.

[BamaTideFan83]

35. Great idea.

I could make a few if you're serious about organizing this. Who else wants to help?

[Sinti]

32. There's a very simple one, actually

Paper ballots and ballot boxes. Go low tech. No machines to worry about. You can put ballot boxes in county court houses for early voting and just drop them in ballot boxes at various polling places for Election Day voting. Someone mentioned having polling duty in the same way we have jury duty, to help beef up the staff on election day. Hand count the ballots as boxes are switched out. You could have your results by the next day.

For those that would complain about the results from hand-counted paper ballots being too slow, getting all the votes to count should be much more important than getting the results in a hurry.

[BamaTideFan83]

36. The simpler, the better!

Double wide lines. Or even triple wide lines. Most sidewalks can handle that. Then the lines would be a lot shorter. Everyone would be happier with getting into vote in 1/2 or 1/3 the time. I'm in charge of logistics at work. Why make something hard, when there are simple solutions? I'll be glad when we're in charge.

[GreenPartyVoter]

38. That doesn't really solve anything, but thanks for the idea anyway. :^)

[GreenPartyVoter]

37. More booths, longer polling hours plus additional days, and make the official

Tuesday election day a federal holiday.

[elleng]

42. Mail voting,

a la Oregon.

[Alter Ego]

45. Give out Nintendo DSes and PSPs?