Black people wait twice as long to vote as white people, a new study finds

[KamaAina]

http://fusion.net/story/335786/long-lines-minority-voter-suppression/

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies used data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study to tabulate which races experience the average longest polling place wait-times. Unsurprisingly, black voters have double the average wait time of white ones.

The Center attributes these differences to two phenomena. The first is a lack of resources at polling places in minority neighborhoods. A Brennan Center study on the November 2012 election found that in three of the states with the longest wait times—Florida, South Carolina and Maryland—voters of color disproportionately had to go to polling places with fewer machines and/or fewer poll workers. There are also outdated voting machines that crash also lengthen lines. Errors in voting rolls — one in eight registration records is invalid or has serious errors — further compound these problems.

The second major factor is cuts to early voting programs, which people of color tend to take advantage of at greater rates than whites. In 2011, several states cut the number of early voting days, the Center report says. Florida, for example, reduced the number of early in-person voting days from 14 to 8. At the 2012 election, several Florida polling places with large populations of color experienced wait times of up to 7 hours.

Whatever their origin, the effects of longer poll lines are huge. The Center estimates that long lines deterred at least 730,000 Americans from voting in November 2012. That works out to about 14,000 voters deterred per state. Voting lines also cost Americans $544 million in lost productivity and wages, creating a kind of feedback loop for voters of color, who are often less able to sacrifice their wages therefore stay away from polling places.

[Nye Bevan]

1. Universal vote by mail would solve this at a stroke (nt)

[LWolf]

8. It sure would.

It's amazing how such a simple solution isn't on the table in every state.

[ZombieHorde]

11. This would be a big help.

I suspect the discrepancy is by design, so the designers will create new tactics, but this could make things more difficult for them.

[cstanleytech]

28. That could be one of the other reasons the Republicans want to kill the US Postal Service.

After all for those who literally cannot afford to take the time off from work to vote or who dont have the transportation to get to the polling places doing away with cheap and reliable mail will make it even harder for their voices to be heard.

[spanone]

2. K&R...

[bettyellen]

3. So Hillary was likely hurt more badly by all the poll closings....

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. I wonder if population density is a factor too?

There's a bunch of white people who live in rural areas.

EDIT: There's suburbs around me that have lots of voting precincts. There's almost never a line at mine, partly because it covers such a small geographic area that's not densely populated.

[liberalmuse]

5. Population density, and...

...not setting up enough polling places, which is done purposely to restrict voting. It's heinous and needs to stop. We're in the 21st Century, for god's sake!

[Buckeye_Democrat]

6. In highly populated areas, there's obviously a need for more voting precincts.

My area probably has more than what's needed, to be honest.

I still vote absentee most of the time just in case there's a problem getting to the precinct. I'm thankful that Ohio doesn't require a "reason" to vote absentee.

[liberalmuse]

7. Thankfully we have mail in ballots.

And my ballot box is just up the street. It's a lot easier to sit down and do research on the candidates you aren't familiar with in the mid-terms. Sometimes I'll drive right to the election office and drop my ballot off there.

I really think we need to make election day into a national holiday with paid time off if you can prove you voted with something like a parking validation. This country needs to increase voter participation by making it easier to vote.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

9. I agree.

I didn't vote absentee in the past and I was asked to work a double-shift that would've prevented me from voting. I insisted that I leave to go vote before my precinct closed, and my manager conceded. I think he feared that I'd raise a legal stink about it.

[Xithras]

21. Poverty is also a factor.

Elections are almost completely funded by local (city and county) governments, and polling places cost money to open and operate. Equipment has to be bought, poll workers have to be paid, rent has to be covered (I recently learned that my polling place...a neighborhood elementary school...charges my county to use their multipurpose room on election day). The wealth of a county government is dependent directly on the wealth of its citizenry, so poor counties have less money to spend on election day while wealthy counties have more. With voting machines costing thousands of dollars each, the relative wealth of counties can easily account for the differences we see in precinct density and the number of voting machines at each voting location.

It's a system that benefits wealthy counties while harming poorer areas.

[malaise]

10. Institutional racism

on steroids

[SunSeeker]

12. How is this not a violation of the 14th Amendment?

[SCantiGOP]

13. The federal courts

Are starting to get more aggressive in overturning voter suppression activities.

Of course that is almost minor compared to the coup they have pulled against democracy by gerrymandering.

[KamaAina]

16. Except for SCOTUS

which just got through eviscerating the Voting Rights Act.

[uponit7771]

14. +1

[IronLionZion]

15. People are migrating

I'm wondering how the wait times will be affected as urban areas become more gentrified and expensive while many minorities move further out to the suburbs to find affordable housing. Will gentrified neighborhoods magically get additional polling places while newly diversifying suburbs reduce them? Or will it be more surgical strikes like they did in North Carolina and other parts of the Jim Crow south.

An example of this could be the neighborhood in Silver Spring Maryland outside DC where the apartment building exploded in a horrifying way and killed a bunch of people in their sleep. All the names of the deceased sounded like Latino or African names. But those poor minorities live within walking distance of wealthy white liberals, yoga studios, organic co-op, microbreweries, and new "luxury" apartments, etc.

[Tess49]

17. Took me an hour and a half to vote in the last pres. election. White, middle class neighbothood.

Line snaked around the building and then took a couple of turns once I got in. I would love a 12 minute wait. Things weren't much better for the early voting folks. I think I'll do absentee this year.

[KamaAina]

20. Where the hell is this?!

[Tess49]

22. Norman, Oklahoma

[LanternWaste]

18. I'd accurately call this privilege for non-POC voters

"The first is a lack of resources at polling places in minority neighborhoods..."

I'd accurately call this privilege for non-POC voters, but that would be far too frustrating for foolish minds which would quickly rationalize the increase in waiting times as some sort of courtesy or blessing (or even more irrationally, pretend their own anecdotal experience is a statistical standard).

[Orrex]

19. Wow--that's pretty outrageous

My polling place hosts rather low turnout, so it usually takes us about four minutes start to finish.

If only there were some miraculous way to increase the number of polling stations at these high volume areas.

If only...

[Jim__]

23. The data is based on a survey and the wait time is a multiple choice question.

The 2012 data is linked to from cces_guide_2012.pdf the question is on page 77 (you have to scroll down on the linked page to get to the link to that report - I can't find a direct link):

Approximately, how long did you have to wait in line to vote?
􀀀! Question asked if CC401 = 4 or 5 and CC403 = 1 or 2
11543 1 Not at all
9514 2 Less than 10 minutes
5466 3 10 - 30 minutes
2416 4 31 minutes - 1 hour
1142 5 More than 1 hour [CC404 t]
43 6 Don't know
12 8 Skipped
14882 9 Not Asked
9517 NA's

If this is the best data available for estimating wait times to vote, that, in and of itself, is a problem. We need an official measure of voter wait times.

[downeastdaniel]

24. Wait, I smell old stale crackers...what a stink!

[cannabis_flower]

25. Could it be that

some of this could be attributed to not being aware of voting options? For example if I wait and go vote on election day, I have waited up to an hour (I seldom do that). Same with the first day of early voting. But if I early vote any other day, there is no waiting. In fact, in Harris County (Houston), if you early vote, you can go to any of about 40 location in the county and don't have to track down your specific precinct.

[bottomofthehill]

26. Having spent 3 of the last 4 election cycles in Tampa, this does not surprise me at all.

Suburban Hillsborough County had people in and out way faster than we could get them in and out in the city limits.

[davidn3600]

29. Florida has early voting for 10 days before the election

Plus you can request absentee ballot up till September 24th.

I'm sorry but if you wait til 6pm on Election night and complain the line is too long and didnt get to vote.....I don't have much sympathy.

[bottomofthehill]

32. It's not always that easy

We would start bringing people to the polls at 7am. The lines would begin then. Although early voting is possible, it is not always accessible. It is much easier if you are in the burbs and have access to a car. You need to go to a polling station that is usually not in your neighborhood and where the poll workers do not know you so it becomes much easier to give you a provisional ballot. The ten days helps, but it soes not always make it easy, and the lines start long before 6.

[underthematrix]

27. As an African American, I don't care how long I have

stand in line to VOTE for Hillary Clinton and every other DEM because in this election my very life depends on me getting to the polls and staying the course until I cast my vote. I'm voting for the survival of our country as we know it.

Shit I'll show them the crack in my ass if that's what it takes to vote. I will not be turned around or back.

[Ace Rothstein]

30. One reason I'm glad I live in Illinois.

We may screw everything else up but I've never heard stories of people waiting in long lines here.

[BumRushDaShow]

31. Glad to see mention oF JCPES

My mother and I followed them (notably panel discussions that they participated in that were broadcast on CSPAN) for a couple decades. They are a low-keyed but potent black organization that not unlike the SPLC (but without much of the fanfare that SPLC garners), generated a lot of published research and discussion of issues impacting the black community.

http://jointcenter.org/about/history-joint-center-political-and-economic-studies

I think with the recent return of Jim Crow, the type of work that they do can be beneficial to a post-Obama black America.

[politicaljunkie41910]

33. As a black woman who grew up near South Central LA, until I went into the military at age 18

and whose lived in middle class white neighborhoods every since, I can attest to the fact that I have never ever waited in line to vote in any of the three homes that I have owned and lived in since. FTR, I didn't try to pick out predominately white neighborhoods, but my criteria was looking for neighborhoods close to work (30 minutes or less for LA County) and the best neighborhood I could afford for schools and resale value. Now the best I could afford doesn't necessarily mean much in a place like California, but we did okay since both of us worked, were savers, and had good jobs.

I've never had to wait more than 5 minutes to vote, ever. Usually the time I've spent there has been running into friends and neighbors either before, during, or after since the vast majority of my polling places have always been in my local neighborhoods, or development, regardless of where I was living at the time. I also have never had to show a picture ID to vote, although I've always carried mine with me, they have never asked for it. They ask for my name and my address, and my name and address have always been on the roll they have. I went to Northern VA for a two year job assignment in 2012 and had to register theecre to vote for the 2012 election. In VA, when you register to vote, they give you a voter's registration card. There is no picture on that voter's registration card, but they tell you not to lose it because you must have it to vote. You do need an ID card to register and I registered at the Voter's Registrars office which was in my local city hall in VA, which just happened to be across the street from my Apartment. On election day I presented my Voter's Registration Card, but they didn't need to see any ID for me to vote, and I was in and out in 10 minutes. While my polling place has always been but a stones throw away from my residence and voting takes 10 minutes or less, with no lines, in two major states, and 4 different major counties within thoses 2 states, I doubt that this was designed for my personal benefit, but I benefitted from it. This is the way it should be for everyone. The fact that it is for some and not for others, is outrageous, because there is no reason it shouldn't be, short of perhaps someone living in a rural area requiring driving a short distance to exercise one's right to vote.

[wildeyed]

34. Laws for maximum acceptable wait times makes sense.

If they actually wanted to fix the problem.

[Liberal_in_LA]

35. kick

[oberliner]

36. What if you control for income?

Do wealthy black people have to wait longer than poor white people?

[Cresent City Kid]

37. And they are the ones alleged to commit voter fraud

I want to know the total number of times someone has made it through the line twice and voted.