Blacks Waited Nearly Twice as Long as Whites to Vote in 2012

Obama: 'We will have to fix that'

Black and Hispanic voters waited almost twice as long as whites to vote in the 2012 election. That startling figure comes out of a new MIT study, which reveals that black voters waited on average 20.2 minutes, compared to 12.7 minutes waited by whites.

Long lines were far commoner in big cities – Democratic strongholds – and could have lost Democrats thousands of votes and perhaps even seats in Congress. One study showed that over 200,000 voters in Florida "gave up in frustration" and didn't vote, the New York Times reports.

So it's hardly surprising that Team Blue are bent on making voting easier and expanding early voting. Dems in Congress have drafted bills requiring states to offer online registration and at least 15 days of early voting. And Obama even mentioned the issue in his inaugural speech: "We have to fix that."

Via the New York Times.

How should the government help cut down on long voting lines?

[thatgirl]

One can only imagine just whom the genius is that voted "do nothing".

[Thunderchicken]

Maybe that genius found a way to vote and avoid the lines.

[thatgirl]

@Thunderchicken Meh, I would say more like someone waiting to place the blame on Dems/libs/whatever else the insult du jour is.

[DerivePI]

Just voted "do nothing." "The Government" in DC should not be involved in local election practices. Of course, if you don't like the problems encountered at your local precinct, the person to talk to is your township, county or state board of elections. Bottom line, this is not something that should be addressed nationally.

[Tralee]

@DerivePI Exactly, just what I said too, if you have long lines, the party in power hasn't done their job and provided enough voting venues. Jeeze, this isn't rocket science. No one prevented them from opening more places and just perhaps the ballot was 20 pages long. In a presidential election there should ONLY be who you want for state office and federal office, no referendums, no long questions, nothing but who do you want representing you in your state and in your country.

[Republican5001]

Only day required for voting is the Tuesday of November. Early voting or by mail is a privledge, not a right. Perhaps if they had valid forms of indentification handy, the process would of been speedy.

[Thunderchicken]

Don't want to stand in line to vote? Vote absentee.

[PNWest]

This is not an option for all voters in all states. Some states require a valid medical excuse to get an absentee ballot. All of Oregon voting is done by mail. No lines. It was very easy to vote up here.

[Thunderchicken]

@PNWest

In MO, I fax a request to the county clerk. I can't see a medical excuse being required. What if a person is simply traveling during an election?(That's how I started voting absentee.)

[PNWest]

@Thunderchicken That was another valid excuse. My wife and I wanted to vote absentee many years ago due to our careers making it difficult to get to the polls but did not meet the criteria. I had forgotten about being out of the state or country as a valid excuse. I do remember that unless you had a pretty convincing excuse you weren't getting an absentee ballot.

[Thunderchicken]

@PNWest

I'm surprised it's that restrictive. Even when I just thought that I might be out of town, it wasn't a problem to get a ballot.

[PNWest]

@Thunderchicken I was too. I like it here in Oregon. You get the ballot about 3 weeks before the election and just either drop it in the mail or take it in to the courthouse when you are ready to vote. Beats standing in line and you can take your time in reading the various ballot proposals they try to sneak by you.

[harold_lloyd]

Voter suppression as a conservative tactic is repulsive to any good citizen.

The more conservative you are, the more you should encourage every citizen to vote.

[seedtick]

And, how does a conservative suppress voter participation?

[harold_lloyd]

@seedtick
Well, here in florida, they did it by reducing the number of early voting days, especially reducing the number of weekend days. They begab to froth at the mouth over fraud, and tried mightily to enact a very stringent voter ID law.

[seedtick]

@harold_lloyd Well, I don't agree with reducing the number of early voting days, unless they have been unduly extended previously. But, anyone who opposes voter ID requirements has something to hide, or is dependant upon what he preceives to be unqualified voters. And, anyone who can make it to the welfare office can make it to the mailbox to apply for and get a free ID card. Voting does require some sort of personal involvement.
And, consider this, what if these same "qualified, but undocumented" voters want to purchase a gun? How will that work...will their water bill suffice? Because, according to the constitution, both voting and bearing arms are rights as citizens.

[Quantummist]

@harold_lloyd ... I know lets just allow voting all year long and as many time as you wish by anonymous ballot....

[Tralee]

This is not a conservative problem, seems to me it's a problem with the Democrat party chairmen of these areas. It's plain, they didn't open enough voting venues or provide enough voting booths. If you have a heavy dem. district, note longer lines, add more booths or venues. There problem solved and you can unpoint your finger at conservatives and voter suppression. The only ones suppressing the vote in these areas were the Dems. who didn't do their job.

[vws]

Voter suppression as a tactic is repulsive to any good citizen.

You should encourage every legal CITIZEN to vote!

[seedtick]

This study is skewed to the large population centers where most minorities live. Minorities waited no longer than whites in the subburbs and rural areas. The best way to solve long lines is to increase the number of voting booths and poll workers.

[Thunderchicken]

I have to wonder is time of day has anything to do with it. (Are they waiting till the last minute.) When I vote in person, I time my voting to avoid the lines.

[seedtick]

@Thunderchicken Yes, and that is the reason for early voting, more more opportunity to vote and shorten the lines. But, many who work are forced to vote at certain hours during the day. I never had a job that I could leave anytime I wished to go vote. However we did allow employees to leave early, as long as enough were left to keep the operation going.
I remember a time in my life that I worked overseas...28 days on and 28 days off. I commuted from my home to the work location on a monthly basis. In 1980 I was in Brazil during election time. I had to go to the courthouse to get an absentee ballot, fill it out and leave it with the County Clerk...but only after I proved my residence and registeration. My point is...if a person wants to vote, they will vote and do so when they are off from work or use the process that allows them to do so outside regular voting schedules.

[PackerMan]

Increase the number of polling locations, makes sense.
Just don't understand why Obama dosent give any attention to the more
serious issues facing Blacks. Like: the number of fatherless black children. Number of Blacks incarcerated, number of school dropouts, percentile of deaths of Blacks killed by other Blacks, with handguns! Number of Black officials convicted of numerous infractions. Leaving their city in ruins, as they lived the high- life.

[seedtick]

@PackerMan There will never be any attention given to the failures within the black communtiy by their present leaders. There must always be a demon on the outside that "causes" their problems. Just like an acohol or drug abuser, the problem cannot be solved unless an admission of the problem is first made. Barack Husssein Obama knows that as long as he keeps them "barefooted and pregnant" he can control their vote by throwing handouts their way. And their community leaders have built their careers upon the condidion of the black populace as it exists now. To change that will affect those careers.

[marine1]

@Thunderchicken I was wondering the same thing. Wonder what the turn out was between 6am & 11am.

[BelinKS]

I am 1/2 black, 1/4 Hispanic and 1/4 Caucasian. I voted early. I only had to wait behind two people at the early voting place. I believe in all that too many people wait until voting day. It's so much easier to vote early! So I guess I don't fall into your statistics. Early voting should be taken advantage of!

[Speedieg]

In would love for it to have been 20 minutes. It was over 3 hours in my area which is very left leaning. The republican controlled state did everything they could to make it difficult to vote by reducing polling places and challenging your id. I presented both a US passport and my drivers license. 3 different people had to look at it. That's never happend before. It was quite suspicios.

[Keyjo]

Republicans are growing more and more desperate. It wouldn't surprise me to see armed guards to intimidate any registered Democrats or Independents new election.

[Roco]

There should be more days of early voting and the votes should be counted that day,not held until the day of the election. All that does is cause a bottle-neck when counting on election day. That's what happen in AZ. Two days after the election, they were still counting early and absentee ballots.

[tomincali]

this is a crock so more of his illegal supporters can vote without being checked. when watching how other countries voters have to wait longer do to fraud checks being all with any sense knows voting is of such importance all should be checked before a vote is counted.

there is no reason to rush when doing something so important to the country as a whole.

[thatgirl]

"this is a crock so more of his illegal supporters can vote without being checked". I'm sure all the little old white ladies that had to wait hours to vote in FL will be thrilled to know you called them illegals.-facepalm-

[tomincali]

@thatgirl looks to me anyone seeing the importance of our vote would not mind waiting.

it was after the storm you are talking about isn't it? what was supposed to be done to speed things up with that mess. i suppose obama supporters would like vote over the phone so they can vote and vote often.

[thatgirl]

@tomincali Hate to tell you this, but there was no storm in FL, whch is where I am speaking of, and if you think its no big deal to keep a whole bunch of elderly waiting for hours to vote, well, one has to wonder at your lack of compassion.

[tomincali]

@thatgirl i know all can vote by mail showing anyone who waits makes that choice.

[mtkopf]

@tomincali @thatgirl sorry but that is not the case in Illinois.
My pregnant wife had to wait over 4 hours to vote EARLY. I voted later the same day and had to wait close to 6 hours. This all happened in a mixed suburb with approximately 23,000 residents on a weekday. Why did we have to wait so long? There were only 3 voting machines and a ballot that was 5 pages.

[kathyparsell]

I think this is something that can be addressed easily, but people still have to take advantage of the solutions offered for it to work.

[TDriver04]

Why is it that where DEMs run everything it's the most screwed up? If 93% of the black vote is for DEMs then I'd say why is it that the DEMs are suppressing there own votes. Maybe their racists!! The Klan was a bunch of DEMs so I don't think it's a streach to think this at all.

[thatgirl]

Um, what????? Can someone translate this, please?

[AceLuby]

States control their voting... all of these states are run by the GOP and only had issues in Dem strongholds. If the opposite happened Fox would be screaming about fraud. Heck, they've been screaming about fraud and don't even have issues as blatant as these.

[seedtick]

@AceLuby Keep in mind...the number of polls is controlled by local county and precinct (Parish and Ward in Louisiana) officials. In Texas, which is a GOP stronghold, many of the counties have a Democratic majority of registered voters and therefore the Democrats control the largest number of voting places during primary elections and the budget controls how many poll workers and voting booths are available. In general elections everyone votes at the same polling places. The voting times are set according to the number of registered voters and past voting statistics.

[seedtick]

@thatgirl With allowances for errors in grammar and spelling, TDriver04 was pretty straightforward in his post...very easy to understand. A true statement for the most part.

[AceLuby]

@seedtick The number of polls is, but not other aspects such as early voting, registration, absentee voting, voting times, etc... those are controlled by the state.

[Medicinebow]

Wow...what a no-brainer. More people=longer waits. I found the mail-in ballot to work just great. But I did have to walk to the end of the dirt road I live on to mail it.

[JustTheFacts]

When I voted ... those white people got up and left if they had to wait very long because they had to get back to work and they weren't going to wait their entire lunch break on something that was wasn't going to change the way that government in this country operates!

[RobertJHarsh]

Other solution: how about race specific voting locations?...and then at each location, anticipate how many people will vote and have the needed number of voting machines available. Problem solved!

[RobertJHarsh]

Hey wait...scratch that. Better idea. Have a "week of voting". Running from Sunday to Saturday of a selected week, everyone goes and votes. Why on just one day?

[USailCapital]

Of course. It is all part of a White man conspiracy to subjugate the Black man. Gimmie a break! Who posted this nonsense drivel of "blacks waited longer". Why is it that blacks always want to scream racism every possible chance. Even coming up with such insane idiotic stuff as this.

[Antony]

Early votes will help without a doubt, but eventually we will to have to explore electronic voting systems. Our voting system is not scalable. Unfortunately, there is a major technological lag in our government, and there is a lot of technophobia among the population.

[mtkopf]

Excellent post.
One wonders, if we are able to pay bills, access bank info, purchase goods and services, and most importantly, file taxes on the internet, why can't one vote using their own computer? Hell, in the time it took to write this post on my Android phone, I could have voted.

[WMCOL]

It is really not a problem as blacks come from a more than 500-year experience of waiting. The frustration builds until it explodes and then some street is named after some black person and the blacks are pacified for a few decades, and it all starts over.

[mimi57]

It was Bush's fault. ( ;

[Thegrif]

Lol...
... And of course it was.
Lol

[Happy2BeHere]

Lol, love it!!

[NTBFW]

Just add more voting machines or polling places. You can always vote early if you like.

[Arumizy]

Wonder who those racist voted for.

[tomincali]

who the ones who vote color ?

[Arumizy]

@tomincali Pretty much those ones, voting for race or color is racist no matter the motivation and something that should not be tolerated todays day and age.