My theory on the long California lines

[RandySF]

Too many people waited too long to mail their ballots. I was literally the only in my team at works who voted before this past Monday.

[napi21]

1. You could be right, but Kast night Rachel (I think) said they closed 4,000+ polling places in LA Cty

I know LA County is big, but closing that many has to have made a diff.

[RandySF]

3. SF closed polling places too

Because so many typically vote by mail.

[BigmanPigman]

2. MSNBC Brian Williams just said

that for the first time they consolidated many local, small voting locations into fewer, larger sites. I don't know if he said that was only in LA or all of CA. He said this happened in TX too.

There weren't long lines in many parts of CA. I don't know why some and not others.

[RandySF]

4. Santa Clara has huge lines.

[BigmanPigman]

5. Why is it in certain areas and not others?

If the individual counties are the ones who decide than you'd think they would make it easier in all counties.

[Retrograde]

18. Santa Clara county mailed a ballot to every voter

on February 3 with a postage paid envelope. If they wanted to wait until March 3 to fill it out, they still could have dropped it off at one of the many locations around the county.* Why so many waited in line I don't know: my guess is that most of them were NPP voters who didn't return the card they got back in November asking what party ballot they wanted, or just registered or changed parties. Or maybe they just like waiting in lines.

*Or dropped it in a mailbox during the day or at any post office before 8PM - California accepts mail-in ballots received by Friday if they're postmarked before the polls close.

[2naSalit]

6. When I lived in California

in the 80s I remember voting in someone's garage just up the street a few blocks. there were usually people there but a comfortable flow. With that sort of polling place only a given number of voters were expected at any location. Wonder why that changed.

[BigmanPigman]

7. I worked the polls in a garage in CA

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1287&pid=629487 (see post #15)

There were zero lines. I have voted in many garages since. I thought it was strange when I first saw this practice and wondered if it is legit.

[msongs]

8. voted many times in a garage in a residence in my neighborhood. its legal nt

[2naSalit]

11. i did too, at first but

I liked it. This change to consolidation was a big and expensive mistake.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

13. Elections should be neighborhood affairs.

Paper ballots, watched by the neighborhood, counted under public view after the polls close.

[2naSalit]

14. In some places it used to be like that. ...nt

[Hermit-The-Prog]

16. It should be again. Distributed cottage industry, not centralized mass production.

[Hoyt]

9. Vote by mail or vote early. Avoid lines, weather illness, unforeseen issues, etc.

[2naSalit]

12. That's what I do now.

I love it, I have time to see who is on the ballot and do a little more research then mark the ballot and drop it in the mail.

[writes3000]

10. I mailed my ballot on Sunday night.

You could also drop it at the post office Monday and all day Tuesday.

[Frasier Balzov]

15. It was a lovely new treat for CA voters

to have their primary moved up to Super Tuesday.

But those who voted early and by mail might have had their votes rendered moot by developments which literally occurred the day before election day.

[rufus dog]

17. I don't get that

I waited until Tuesday... to turn my mail in ballot. Drove right down the road, handed them my ballot. So even if you didn't mail it in, you could still just drop it off.

[pat_k]

19. As long as there is an option to...

... to vote at a polling place on election day, sufficient resources must be available to handle the very highest possible turn out.

Lines are a poll tax.

Either go to 100% mail in, or make sure there are sufficient polling places and resources on election day.

Our party has done FAR too little to address voter suppression in all it's forms. Underallocation of resources to create barriers to voting (like long lines) in "certain areas" is at the top of the list. Just as it was in 2016, if Trump wins in Nov, it will be due to the success of voter suppression tactics.

An old 2016 post of mine

LINES need to = FINES for SOS/County