I am completely grateful to all the women suffragettes who did all the (dangerous!) things they did in order to give me the right to vote. I stand there, every time I go to the polls, just moments before I press that "VOTE" button, and I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude that I have this right; that I live in America, and that women suffragettes knew it deep in their heart that they had to work hard and fight to give the following generations of women the right to vote. It's incredible. I am so grateful for this right and freedom.
Having said all of that, someone on Facebook, and many on Twitter have said they were astounded that in this day & age, that so many people were still in line 2 1/2 hours later in Virginia after the polls had closed. I wrote this response on Facebook on a friend's wall, and this really is the gist of what I'm thinking today (and late last night as we watched the election returns roll in). So I wanted to share:
In regards to the long lines in VA, I have voted in every election since Ross Perot, I mean Bill Clinton. I have never never had to wait in line behind more than 11 people. I've watched the polling stations upgrade their equipment slowly over the years, but its always been the same amount at each station. The last 3 elections I've voted at have all had the same 4 electronic stations, and about 8-10 paper stations where they feed your ballot into a machine that reads it.
I think that this election we just witnessed (and this is Jodi-observation / Jodi-reasoning here; I have not yet worked to find data to corroborate what I'm about to say) -- shows that so many more people went to the polls this year than ever before. And that is very remarkable. I think we must have at least tripled all the people (in numbers) who have voted previously.
If you go to Starbucks in the morning, and watch the line, you will see there are lulls when the employees can wipe counters and empty the trash. When people continue to come in the door and come in the door and come in the door .... The line gets incredibly long and the employees simply cannot keep up. I think the voting stations simply could not keep up with the influx of people -- the demand to vote. And this is a good thing - for now. Next time, we need more volunteers to check people in, and more voting stations for people to click on "VOTE."
I think it what happened yesterday. I also think the checking of the ID twice slows it down; not necessarily the voting stations. If we had more people checking IDs, perhaps the line would move a bit more. I stood in line yesterday for 45 minutes. My husband went just before I did (I went when he came back) and he stood there for 1 1/2 hours.
