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.

Comments

[AmazedOne]

I so hope that this will be fixed by the time the next election comes around. (just another form of suppressing votes, and it needs to stop !!!)

[Mike949]

There is no excuse for this situation to exist. I would think the Broward County Supervisor of Elections, Dr. Brenda C. Snipes, would have addressed this issue long before election day. Everyone should immediately contact her to express their outrage. It's unfathomable to think that a Democrat could disenfranchise so many voters.

[harriettubman]

The NAACP should be suing.

[GotRights]

Velda City, just outside St. Louis, has a 6.5 hour wait to vote. I looked up the demographic info for Velda city. Surprise, surprise: it's 96 percent African American. I'll bet the white suburbs of St. Louis got plenty of voting machines.

http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/political-fix/political-fix/2008/11/6-12-hours-wait-in-velda-city/

[TruthandReconciliation]

What county in Florida is this? I would feel better being angry about this if I knew the stats were true. I know this is happening in Virginia, a new battleground state and that Virginia Governor Tim Kaine is directly responsible, but I did not think this could happen in Florida-not again.

[drhappy]

This is all reprehensible. The Bush administration(republicans) can spend U.S. lives and billions on trying to bring democracy to Iraq, while voter suppression by the republicans is openly tolerated in this country.
This is shameful and needs to be fixed.

[dwatford]

I live in Dover De and from past elections I could always walk in and vote right away Not this time,,,there were about 200 of us waiting at 10:30 and I had to circle the lot to find a place to park. My sister voted at 8:00 and she said there were about a hundred in line then waiting. I talked and talked to her as she was undecided but yes! she voted for Senator Obama.

Obama/Biden 08

[Deni]

WhoooHooo! Congratulations on getting your sister to vote for Obama!

[Myshkin57]

Someone is sending text messages to University of Florida students telling them that voting is being extended to Wednesday. I work at the University and received an email from the VP of student affairs about this.

[texastrixie]

You need to forward this email to both law enforcement and the press.

[Myshkin57]

It's been done.

[jood42]

Somebody's going to report that to the authorities, right? Because that's a federal crime. Please let the VP know so the email can get forwarded to the right people to press charges of voter suppression.

[gwhizz]

um...ok is this an actual voting machine or a scanner. Because FL just changed to optical scan ballots and there are one or 2 scanners in every polling station for literally dozens of carrels where people fill in their ballots.
In my station, the hold up was not at the scanners, but at sign in.

[TruthandReconciliation]

I was wondering the same thing. Is this one voting machine per 400 voters or one scanner? One scanner for 400 votes is adequate. Sam Stein, you should have made this clear. And the fact that you did not name the pricinct makes it all the more suspect. There is enough of a debacle like this happening in Virginia, no need to exaggerate fair areas.

[gwhizz]

I have to go with scanner. I live in a very diverse neighborhood and can honestly say there were far more african american voters (welcome, but where have you been all elections in years gone by? where were you during the primaries?) in line with me this morning than any other group, and none of us waited behind more than 2 maybe 3 people to feed our ballots through the scanner. This after waiting an hour or so to enter the building.

Facts, please Huff po.

[sistermoon]

This is simply a 21st century version of the old poll taxes and literacy tests. Another way of disenfranchising and disempowering low income people and people of color.
Our government should be ashamed...

[jesaisquoi]

I prefer to vote today's government out of office

[cadawa]

As long as we continue to have partisan election officials and not a professional, non partisan election department, this will continue. Without prosecution for voter disenfranchisement there is no incentive to do anything else but cheat.

[Bigbard]

No voter suppression in North Carolina that i know of, Have seen any lines even in early voting. Everyones experience was 10 minutes.

[Emerald1943]

Same here in rural western NC! Paper ballots, color in the circle, insert your ballot in the tabulator, not more than 10 minutes total.

[4evryoung]

The number of voting machines at each precinct should be commensurate with the number of registered voters in that precinct. It should not matter how many voters have shown up for past elections. This should not be a state decision it should be federal law.

The point is to get out the vote. Not Get out the Democratic Vote or Get out the Republican Vote. But get out as many of the registered voters as possible.

GOTV should be a public service announcement.

[Budokan]

lol, did anyone really expect Repubicants to give minorities enough machines to vote on....?

[natureman]

It's ashame you fall for that propaganda.

[tlou33]

This is absolutely disgusting. I can't believe we live in the United States of
America in the year 2008. Isn't this an equal protection issue?