As the polls grind to a close, various images linger from the humorous of a surfer voting in California fresh from the beach with his board to the inspiring of a woman in labor insisting on voting before going to the hospital. However, one image remains consistent across the country: absurdly long line. Despite scandals from 2008 of people waiting for hours to vote, election officials have again produced endless lines by failing to produce adequate voting machines for the expected vote in many areas. My voting place in McLean was wonderful – enough machines and short lines. However, I have heard nightmare stories from others around the region including over three hour waits in Maryland.
I helped cover the last election in 2008 for CBS and recall discussing the lines in Ohio where people literally passed out waiting to vote. My students reported waiting for as long as three hours in Virginia. One student from New York applied for an absentee ballot almost two months ago and never received it. From New Jersey to Florida to Ohio, people are legitimately irate that after many billions of dollars in federal funds, states continue to fail to consistently offer sufficient resources for citizens across the country. We should have a consistent benchmark standard that voters should be able to get in line and vote within 30 minutes.
The lack of resources comes with suspicions of a planned failure. In Ohio in 2004, we were struck by the consistently long lines in Democratic and minority areas. We pressed the Kerry campaign whether it would challenge the pattern across the state. At first, the campaign indicated that it would but then Kerry himself threw in the towel. Now, four years later (and 12 years after the Florida disaster) we are again left astonished by the lines – forcing voters to wait for hours despite work and family obligations. Nevertheless, politicians continue to express contempt for the relatively low percentages of people voting while repeatedly failing to meet this very basic function of a democracy. Once again, billions evaporated into the pockets of lobbyists and contractors while the lines again appear around the country.
This evening on national news two stories were shown by NBC News. If you turned off the sound, it would seem that the network repeated the story. It showed endless lines of tired people. However, the first story was a line of voters at a typical voting place while the second story was a line of hurricane victims. After the debacles in 2000 and 2008, we are still faced with chaotic polling places with lines stretching for blocks. It is not just an insult to our citizens but a recurring embarrassment for the world’s leading democracy.
Jonathan Turley
LK,
Hopefully. If a DNC controlled Senate does anything substantive, that needs to be at the top of the list.
Right now the DNC has 49 seats and three of the four unreported states (NM, ND and MT) are predicted and trending D. I’m not optimistic a Democratic controlled Senate will be any less obstructionist than a GOP controlled Senate, but I do love watching that wormy corporatist shitheel McConnell take one on that receding chin of his.
SWM: “…Texas.”
It’s Chinatown, Jake.
***
Thanks for the number Gene. Yea, enough to gut the filibusterer though?
“White, older men will not be enough to put the Republicans in the White House.”
Swedish comment: The world breathes out.
A lot of the bad guys lost but not in Texas.
What’s also interesting is the trouncing the GOP is getting in the Senate.
275 with Oregon reporting.
It’s official.
LOL, Raff, you SWM (on another thread) are tied at 11:14pm for breaking the news. We must be watching the same news. The Senate is retained by the Dems and the House is still retained by the R’s. The next 4 years are going to be interesting- or just like the last 4 years.
Not quite. That puts him at 268, but given the rest of the states pending, it’s as good as a done deal.
Democratic HQ declares Obama “elected”.
Obama is on his way to declare himself winner. Probably Romney has conceded via tel call.
Obama just won with Ohio putting him over the top!
MSNBC just called it for Obama!
Watching film of Akin making a bi**hy/god-centric concession speech. Darn, only an excerpt- I’ll have to read it. Amateur.
Yes, I hope Matt had some money down somewhere
Watching film of Akin making a bitchy/god-centric concession speech. Darn, only an excerpt- I’ll have to read it. Amateur.
Yes, I hope Matt had some money down somewhere 🙂
You are right about Silver’s predictions Gene. He is amazing.
“…. it’s good whenever one of Voldemort’s minions is defeated. ” lottakatz…lol!
So far it all looks like Nate Silver’s predictions were pretty good.
Gene, she drives me crazy too, it came down to anybody but Aiken- it’s good whenever one of Voldemort’s minions is defeated. I hated filling out my ballot though; given an actual choice I would have voted against a number of people that I voted for but I just had to vote for (IMO) ‘the good of the state/country’. My preferences- dislikes really, just had to take a back seat, I couldn’t leave blanks, it wouldn’t have been responsible IMO. Srsly, she pi**ed me off to the point that I sent her an email PtA (prior to Aiken) and told her that we were over, she had lost my vote for ’12. Sigh, I’m not even going to get make-up sex- there’s no make-up involved, it was just a pragmatic capitulation, LOL.
They are watching the election in China. This from CNN comments:
“From China.. there’s a story on Caijing.com.cnn with the headline “7 hours waiting in line, citizens condemn the polling as a shame.”
It provoked this comment on Weibo: @JXTV_LiuGuanLin @JXTV_LiuGuanLin: “You feel shame for 7 hours waiting? We have been waiting for more than 60 years.”hilary.whitemanNov 7, 2012 at 2:59 AM”
LOL.
Darren,
Excuse me for sticking my nose in. The Icelanders are the culturally most homogenous part of the Scandinavian countries. Very independently minded, in a good way.
But they are killing the ocean with their fishing to feed farm fish.