Despite Clear Presidential Victor, No Shortage of Problems in 2008 Election

By Tova Andrea Wang, Common Cause. Posted November 10, 2008.

Much has been made of the fact that there was no catastrophic meltdown in the election system this year. The fact that problems were not as pervasive as they might have been is due to the hard work of the voting rights community and election administrators in the months and even years before the election and the enthusiasm and persistence of voters. At the same time, thousands and thousands of voters faced unacceptable barriers to voting this year, demonstrating that much more work remains to be done.

LONG LINES

While we are proud of the historic turnout on Election Day, the amount of time some Americans had to wait in order to vote was not just unfortunate, it could have denied the right to cast a ballot for many voters. While in many precincts, voting took only a matter of minutes, in Detroit, some had to wait in line for five hours. In the St. Louis area it was six hours. In Chesapeake, VA, seven hours. Voters in Georgia and Florida faced unacceptably long wait times during early voting. While the commitment of so many to wait no matter how long it took was inspiring, some voters inevitably could not wait that long -- they worked for hourly wages, couldn't get that much time off or had child care responsibilities.

Why were there such long lines? The data is insufficient to say with precision, but we do know some things. We knew going into the election that there was going to be much higher turnout this year than in the past, but that in many places, especially swing states where turnout would be highest, there were simply not going to be enough voting machines to handle the capacity. As we pointed out in our report on ten swing states, many states had no statewide standards on number of machines required per voter, while in other states, such as Virginia, the standard was inadequate. From another recent Common Cause report, we also know that machine breakdowns and problems with electronic poll books significantly exacerbated the problem of long waits, especially where there were insufficient back up plans.

Other unnecessary confusion and controversy also likely added to wait times. For example, across the country voters arrived at the polls to find they were not on the registration list. In some places there was confusion over what voter identification was required.

In the future, we need to put the resources and planning into our distribution and preparation of voting machines so that no one has to wait in line all day to exercise his right to vote. This means not only ensuring we have enough machines but also making sure that the plan for allocating those machines is based on a set rational criteria and equity. For example, whereas Virginia law requires one voting machine for every 750 voters -- and saw some of the worst of the lines -- Ohio had early voting and the Secretary of State directed that there be one machine for every 175 voters, and there were not, by and large, very long lines. We also need to make sure to have backup plans for when voting machines break down, which they do. Federal law should require that all precincts have stocked and utilize emergency paper ballots whenever any voting machine in a polling site goes down.

We also witnessed how much of a difference early voting can make. States with early voting had far less of a problem with long lines than states that did not. For example, North Carolina, which combined same day registration and early voting and had the biggest increase in turnout in the country,ii avoided this problem in most places on Election Day, whereas Pennsylvania did not. Unless and until Election Day can be run in such a way that it is easy and quick for all voters, all states should have a window of early voting. An effective early voting system is one that includes at least one weekend, has sufficient numbers of locations so that there are not unreasonable lines during early voting either, and early voting locations must be placed strategically in a way that best meets the needs of all voters.

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Tova Andrea Wang is vice president for research at Common Cause.

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