Urban, Diverse Areas Not Given Enough Voting Machines
TMZ, of all sites, has an interesting story up about a political saboteur telling Democrats in Deerfield Beach, Florida that they are supposed to vote at a different location.
Putting aside, for the moment the dirty tricks going on, there is another important nugget to glean from the story.
Nearly 400 people were firmly planted in line at 6:15 this morning, waiting for the polls to open at 7:00 AM. There is one voting machine to accommodate all of them.
This is a predominantly African-American community, with only one machine to punch in residents' votes.
Contrast that with an email we received from a voter near Columbus, Ohio, where, he says, historically very few people show up to vote. There were 14 voting machines on hand -- in this case, a needed amount for the influx of nearby college students showing up to the polls.
At 6:10 I was 31st in line. By the time the doors opened there were more than 100 in line. I am 57 years old and this is the first time there were more than 3 people present prior to the doors opening. Usually I am the first and only voter at opening. I finished voting by 7:00. The tech still had about 14 machines to start up and get running. About 60 people had voted and about 250 in line. The entire crowd was Students and people older than me. We're next door to [Ohio State University].
This problem is a constant gripe of Democrats: there is simply not a proper, proportional allocation of infrastructure to meet the needs of densely populated communities. Indeed, the Huffington Post has been getting tons emails from urban locales reporting a lack of machines, election workers and even ballots necessary to deal with the high turnout.
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First Posted: 11- 4-08 12:35 PM | Updated: 12- 5-08 05:12 AM