Mother Jones - Comments for "A Tax Cut Everyone Should Support"

Voter suppresion happens everywhere.
I liked to vote in person. Alas, It has become too difficult to do so. So I vote by absentee ballot.
I live on the edge of two voting areas in Berkeley California. At the polling station I used to go to, it would take five minutes to vote. But four years ago my side of the street was moved to a voting station down the hill, twice as far away as the one I used to walk to. It took 90 minutes to vote in the primary and over two hours to vote in November. I went to my old voting station, at my daughter's school, after I stood in line for two hours to vote. There has no line. Not at that time, nor during any election since then.
Guess which voting zone has an average income of about half the other zone...

Lyndon B. Johnson, to Congress and the American people, 15 March 1965:

We have already waited 100 years and more and the time for waiting is gone. So I ask you to join me in working long hours and nights and weekends, if necessary, to pass this bill. And I don't make that request lightly, for, from the window where I sit, with the problems of our country, I recognize that from outside this chamber is the outraged conscience of a nation, the grave concern of many nations and the harsh judgment of history on our acts.

But even if we pass this bill the battle will not be over. What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and state of America. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life. Their cause must be our cause too. Because it's not just Negroes, but really it's all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice.

And we shall overcome.

I live in an upper-middle class white "suburban" neighborhood in Houston. For regular elections, I have never waited in a line for more than 5 minutes (note: I never vote during the rush hour times). Conversely, the lower-economic areas always have 2+ hour wait times to vote throughout the day. I believe that the county government (republican) is in charge of elections.

I live and vote in a northern Virginia neighborhood with a high proportion of citizens who are members of a minority group and naturalized citizens.

Every Presidential election, we spend hours in line. The registration checkers are retired people with a large book of names. The voting is electronic, but the booths are over a decade old... like something out of the days of Pong.

I work in a place with a lot of people who live in higher middle class white neighborhoods. They report 5 and 10 minute waits... with up-to-date, electonic pencil, voting booths.

All the people in the line today were excited and upbeat this year; and the weather was pleasant enought. But, the differences in the cost of voting among neighborhoods is stark... and for this white upper middle class citizen, a little disheartening.

I'm in blue state Mass. and I just waited 1/2 an hour to vote. It happens every time if you come in as soon as the polls open. Everybody is trying to get to work. The town has about 20K people and is upscale.
In Mass. there is no hinderance to voting absentee.

Way to go Mattw with the only materially relevant information in comments :D

Why don't you have compulsory voting AND vote on a Saturday like Australia does.

Another blue stater here who never has to wait more than a few minutes to vote.

Wonder if part of the waiting is a blue state/red state issue? Or a class issue - middle and upper class areas having shorter wait times?

Someone must have looked into this by now.

permanent absentee voting is the way to go

generally speaking if you submit your ballot early enough it will actually be counted first but if you turn in your ballot on election day it will likely not be counted.

I'm in California, and yeah, never had to wait in a line...
I really do miss Oregon and the convenience of vote-by-mail. Seriously, why doesn't everyone do it? Once again, Oregon is ahead of the curve and no one is paying attention. I miss PDX.
Its pretty hard to get a consistently fair election when there are 50 different rules for the same game. Sorry for anyone in CT.

It's not that your neighborhood is upscale, Kevin -- it's because California regulates the maximum number of voters per polling place.

A few years ago, the 1250-voter limit sunsetted without being renewed (the number fell back down to 1000, I think) and districts got redrawn like crazy.

1000 voters per polling place = max of 750 throughput on election day
750 voters / 2 check in tables / 14 hours = 2 minutes to wave in each voter
750 / 4 stations = ~190 votes per station, or roughly 4 minutes per voter

Here in posh CT, we have no early or "convenience" absentee voting (you have to be away or ill), and my polling place serves 4000 voters through only 2 "checkers" to sign voters in. With an expected 90% turnout, each checker needs to wave through 130 voters an hour, or one every 30 seconds. That's not going to happen, so even if the voters were distributed evenly throughout the day, there are going to be lines.

How much plywood / cardboard and curtains would ONE electronic voting machine pay for?

Talk about a coincidence, Campbell Brown had guests that were talking about the new political make-up of the Election with West Virginia and Georgia possibly voting Democratic. Seems that the South was Democratic up to the 1964 Civil Rights Act and then became a Republican Bastion-Check with Al Gore, he has some real interesting thoughts on this one!

Weighing in from Tucson, AZ, a decidedly ethnically-mixed, lower-middle income area, solidly Democrats (but this is Pima County, so that's fine). I've never waited more than 5 minutes. However, my job schedule permits me to show up during the day. Folks who don't get to the polls until 6 or 6:30 PM, or who have to vote right at 7 AM, often confront hour-long lines. That's another reason for the national holiday approach for presidential elections.

I think easier and equal voting access needs to be considered a basic civil right.

Four years ago we voted early at a local library. This year, no dice. The only onsite early voting in LA County is in Norwalk, more than a two-hour round trip from here. That's a change in the wrong direction.

We need early voting everywhere, and nowhere should anyone wait more than 15 minutes. I live in a nice part of town and that's as long as we've ever had to wait. It can be accomplished.