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Departments Election Issues Waiting to vote Why such a line? Yes, turnout was a factor. But the real problem was a grotesque shortage of voting machines. Finland Elementary serves three precincts: Ward 37, A, B and C. The election officer at the door told me that the smallest of these precincts has some 400 registered voters, the middle-sized one has more than 800 and the largest "thousands." Because of the length and complexity of the ballot, voters were being limited to five minutes to finish their ballot, and most were using all that time. Each precinct had two functioning voting machines. The largest precinct was supposed to have three machines. One was broken at the precinct's opening and later replaced with another machine that also did not function. It's not hard to do the math. Five minutes per voter means 12 voters per machine per hour. Ohio polls were open for 13 hours, for a maximum throughput of 156 voters per machine, or 312 voters per precinct. That's barely enough for a 75 percent turnout in the smallest precinct of the three. For the larger precincts, it was a joke -- on voters. This situation played out all over the city of Columbus and the state of Ohio on Election Day, with lines reported at 90 minutes to two hours from start to finish. One of my drivers spent two and a half hours accompanying a single elderly voter to the polls. How high was the turnout really? I don't yet know the answer to that. But I do know that you cannot judge from the lines. You have to know the number of machines and the time it takes to vote. The miracle was the mood of the voters. They arrived in all their all- American splendor -- work clothes and sweat suits, ponchos and umbrellas, baby packs and walkers -- with almost infinite patience and good humor. In the 40 minutes I waited at the door, only a half-dozen voters left without voting. As I wrote this, waiting in the car at 8 p.m. a half-hour after the polls officially closed, perhaps 300 more were still waiting inside the school. Most of them likely stayed there until they could vote. My young friend also toughed it out. Were the long lines the result of incompetence? Of insufficient funding for the new touch-screen machines? Or were they part of a strategy to discourage and suppress the vote? I report; you decide. But whatever the reason, the failure to provide enough machines for Americans to vote without having to wait for two hours or more is a scandal. - - - - - - - - - - - - About the writer James K. Galbraith is Salon's economics correspondent. He teaches at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. |
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Hearings on Ohio voting put 2004 election in doubt Closing the Circle: The Corporatization of Elections Subordinating nation's secular values to zealots' will The Public Hearings and Rally About Election Fraud in Columbus, OH this weekend, Sat. 11/13-Please pass widely! Slip-sliding away in Columbus Green and Libertarian Presidential Candidates to Demand Ohio Recount An End To Mourning November 3rd action The Bible, The Constitution, and the James Carville Experiment Basic report from Columbus Waiting to vote Confessions of a political Know-Nothing in the wake of the 2004 elections Let the spin begin Back Stabbers Cost Kerry in Ohio! The Last Battle Republican America! Republican Forever! Is there inner-city election suppression in Franklin County, Ohio? Michael Moore in Columbus No love in the Heartland: Kerry gets mocked in Pa. school election Ten reasons for Greens to vote for Kerry Twelve ways Bush is now stealing the Ohio vote GW Bush Before the Iraq War
MISOGYNY Foreign Policy Forecast: If Bush Wins | If Kerry Wins Hope for the homestretch FactCheck.org says Cheney got it wrong Do the Hokey Pokey Hope for the homestretch Addressing Republican issues with John Kerry Gallup Polls- Conditioning for Vote Rigging? Too Many Cameras and Not Enough Truth: John Kerry Dodges the Press Nader 2000 Leaders United To Defeat Bush Shut up and color: the politics of bullying Kerry, Nader and the Greens need to kill the circular firing squad Don’t Believe the Hype; Terrorist Warnings Just Another Way Bush Will Steal Election President of Greater Stark County AFL-CIO speaks out on Bush’s visit in Canton, Ohio I'll Follow Kucinich to Kerry, Sorry Ralph Badnarik Doubles in Recent National Poll ‘A green world is possible’ planned in New York City during the Republican National Convention An open letter to progressives: vote Kerry and Cobb A street fighting man? How Kucinich can win Scary, Scary John Kerry With all deliberate stupidity: US self-isolation makes Iraq a virtual non-issue in the elections so far To support or not to support; the Nader question Halliburton, VP Cheney's Former Company Faces Second Criminal Probe In Four Years The Lone Ranger of Righteousness The Wrong Side of History High Noon in America The Truth is Out: Kucinich is the choice of progressives Dean and Kucinich Bush Should Be Facing 'A Long, Hard Slog' On The Campaign Trail, But Dems Too Busy Fighting With Each Other Read Election Issues Articles by Year: |
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