If you are concerned about vote suppression on the part of elections officials, please read.

[Pacifist Patriot]

<Quite long, so grab a cup of coffee or tea...or just skip it all together if you don't have the patience today. Totally understand.>

I am not referring to mailing fraudulent voting instructions or other actions that point directly to the GOP. I am referring to the distribution of machines and/or booths, availability of polling stations, etc.

I can only describe the system in one county in Florida, but that too is an important point. Beyond federal and state statutes and regulations, Supervisors of Election have a fair number of decicions to make and they make them in different ways.

Most of the SOEs I have met were caring people who really and truly desired a fair, easy and short voting experience for their constituents. This is another important point. In my area they are elected rather than appointed, making them directly answerable to the very people they serve. Personally, I think the position should be non-partisan but you would likely still get people who more closely affiliate with a particular political party even if they cannot opening declare it. Suffice it to say, they are not all evil henchman at the beck and call of the GOP...or the Democrats for that matter.

Voting lines in areas of Florida have been widely reported as having extraordinarily long lines and some seem to think it a concerted effort to suppress the democratic vote in this state. Elsewhere I have attempted to make the point that the real reason for such lines is a stupid law, not an oppressive one that could have as easily affected the GOP as it has the Democrats. THE most important reason for these lines is the fact that Democrats and some Independents/NPA voters are astronomically more motivated to vote early than are Republicans. Let's face it. We have something to get excited about and they have the Cadaverick and his Gussied Up Barbie Doll.

Note: Our Republican governor issued an emergency order to extend early voting hours at the Supervisor of Election's office every day and extend weekend hours at the other early voting locations. He's also the one who restored voting rights to oodles of convicted felons. I suspect his party is seeing him as something of a maverick.

So moving past early voting, how can you tell if vote suppression is occuring on election day?

As I said, I can only describe the system in my county but that is exactly why each and every informed voter should inquire of the Supervisor of Election's office exactly how precincts are configured, polling places determined, machines and/or booths allocated and election day problems resolved. Keeping in mind this weekend is not the time to be asking these questions. These men and women will be working like dogs from Friday evening until at least Wednesday. They do not see their families much, if at all, and generally fall into a stupor once the election results are certified. Here's hoping your SOE website has all this pertinent information.

Okay, here's how it works in my county.

1. Precincts are based on population and historical data about registered voters per population. So while my precinct has not changed because of no new building in the area, other precincts have had to be created, eliminated, combined or redrawn.(This is not the same thing as districts which politicians love to tinker with in order to create safe constitutencies.)

2. Polling places are located within precincts and sometimes combined. My precinct shares a polling place with another precinct because the polling place is located on the border of our two precincts and no one has to drive more than three miles to vote. They are selected based on ability to serve as a polling place on election day (many of our polling places are in churches because they are understandably vacant on Tuesdays and have large areas that can accommodate the machines), their willingness to utilize the space, and located so that no voter has to drive a long distance to vote.

3. Machines & Booths Booths (we don't have touchscreen so when I refer to machine I'm referring to a tabulator) are allocated based on registered voters in a given precinct as well as a determination of likely voter turnout. I am going to use some patently made up figures to illustrate the point.

A. 1800 registered voters 4 booths
B. 1350 registered voters 3 booths
C. 900 registered voters 2 booths
D. 450 registered voters 1 booths

A booth is allocated using a formula something like the average vote time is 90 seconds and the average switch time between voters in 30 seconds. We're open 12 hours so each booth can safely handle 360 voters. Assuming an 80 percent turnout (unprecedented but accounted for) we could allocate one machine per 450 registered voters.

Such equations are not without their problems.
a) Voter registration may have surged after the booth allocation was determined, but before election day. (Though there is last minute number crunching over the weekend to try to address this.)
b) The county may simply not have the budget and the equipment to meet the goal of 450 registered voters per booth on election day. (Bad, bad, bad!)
c) Early voting may bring disproportionate numbers of voters out of the equation. Which as we well know would actually depress lines in strong democratic areas while rendering them the same in republican ones, giving a strange impression of vote suppression against the GOP who are now the ones standing in a bit of a line. *Shrug* Who knows?
d) Lines are inevitable because people do not arrive at the polling station in two minute increments. If a hundred people arrive close together and there are 10 booths there is going to be about a twenty minute wait for the guy who walked in the door last. However, there will be times throughout the day when it's virtually a walk-up.

Wah! This discrimates against democratic precincts. They'll have longer lines. Perhaps, but when you arrive at the polling place you are standing in line with Democrats, Republicans, Independents, NPAs, Green Party, Liberatrians, etc. If they are allocated on a proportional basis (rather than an even basis which is causing some problems with early voting) than line waits should be relatively even. It's GOTV and sadly the economic and educational demographics of a precinct that primarily account for uneven lines. However, our SOE also factors in variances in historical voter turnout to allocate booths. This was a move to provide more booths to alleviate wait times in areas with higher voter turnout, but that attempt to solve a problem may very well backfire this year, at least initially in the day.

4. Election Day Problems In my county, as mentioned above, spare machines are kept in reserve and moved as quickly as possible to a precinct reporting a down or spazzy tabulator. Generators are provided at all polling places. While our form of voting does not absolutely require power, it does help to be able to actually see the ballot, so lights are deemed a necessity. And then you've got the tabulators and the computers used by the elections officials. If a precinct feels it is underutilizing booths or a precinct feels it needs more booths they can call in their status and booths can be moved around the county. Tabulators are preconfigured for a particular polling station so if we run out of spare tabulators we're down to paper ballots (not such a bad thing).

In a very long nutshell, these are the four key things to inquire about before being able to assess if voter suppression is happening on the part of the elections officials.

This is NOT to say there won't be other problems. Vote flipping, tabulator manipulation, purged voter roles, badly trained election volunteers, confused voters who received a deceptive letter from the GOP in the guise of trying to be oh so helpful, etc. We absolutely must remain informed and vigilent and report errors as soon as they happen. We just need to make sure our focus is steady and rational.

Figure out WHY the lines are long before jumping to the conclusion it is because your SOE is the spawn of Satan and is out to get the Democrats. They cannot control when people arrive at the polls, the weather, a laptop or printer going on the blink. They can try to rectify or alleviate some problems, but they aren't divine.

If you feel the SOE has made some appalling decisions, either stupid or constituting vote suppression, find a voters advocacy group in your county. They will be able to help you make a strong and principled appeal to your county officials and beyond. Oh, and work on an opponent's campaign the next chance you have to toss the bastard out of office.

Cheers!

P.S. As you can probably see, the problem with the SOE in my county is not equitable distribution of polling stations, tabulators and booths. He seems to have a fair grasp on making the process as fast and easy as possible. Our problem is he is utterly clueless about security issues and just cannot grasp the dangers inherent in the tabulators. In my opinion, that is much much worse than having to stand in line for an hour. I'd rather stand in line and know my vote was counted properly than breeze in and out and wonder if the results are valid.

Edited to fix a formatting error.