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| Eye on Miami/Barry White |
Somehow we are in the middle of the last day of 8 days of early voting and lines are still running 3 to 6 hours long.
Maybe I'm not remembering things right, but when I was growing up in the 70's and 80's there was no early voting (that I can recall) and absentee voting was used by those who were overseas or who were not going to be around for whatever reason on Election Day. It wasn't considered an alternative kind of voting as it is today. Virtually everyone voted on one day...and there weren't the lines that we have seen now for 8 straight days.
It doesn't appear that significantly less people actually voted back then. So were the ballots shorter? Were there more polling stations?
Someone help me out here.
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7 comments:
I voted this morning, getting to the Coral Reef Library in Perrine at 6:40 a.m. There were already 300 or so people in line, and it took me almost four hours to get through.
Since I live in Palmetto Bay, they generated my ballot for me and it was twelve pages (six sheets, both sides). Being careful to fill in the little bubbles carefully, it took me fifteen minutes just to vote and another five to get it scanned.
When I first voted in an election at a polling place (1972 at the fire station on Oak Avenue in Coconut Grove), it took about ten minutes from the time I walked in, voted, and left. And that was on Election Day; early voting is a very recent phenomenon. In fact, it wasn't until I moved to Florida that I even heard about it.
So you're thinking it's the time it takes to fill out the ballot?
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The difference between early voting and election day is the number of places to cast your ballot. If you're going to vote early, there are less places to do it, therefore there will be longer lines. Also, there will be fewer machines out, and only a few volunteers.
On election day, there are a lot more places to vote, a lot more machines in each location, and a lot more volunteers to facilitate it. So even though this is traditionally when most people vote, it moves a lot quicker.
Thanks, CLJ. That's what I was looking for. I had forgotten that early voting was held in a limited number of locations.
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I think C.L.J. is right, too. What I found very interesting is that there was absolutely no sign of anyone being pissed off at having to wait so long. Not within earshot, at least.
Quite a number of friends are delighted that they GOT to vote; the long wait seems to have enhanced the experience for them. Weird.
At this point, I'm voting on Election Day, because it will be quicker; last time, I was in and out in ten minutes - and that was before tens of thousands of people voted early.
The largest precincts are about 3,000 people. If 70% of people vote on JUST ELECTION day that would be 2,100 people voting on election day. 2,432 people voted yesterday with earyl voting at the North Dade Regional Library. The reason it would be a much shorter time (and line) on election day is BECAUSE ONLY ONE PRECINCT VOTES. They don't have to print up different ballot pages for other precincts so the lines would go much faster. Also the long ballot didn't help the whole situation.
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