Official line on voting is to expect a wait

Long lines and 30-minute waits are expected for voters looking to cast their ballots during lunch hours, according to area poll workers.

Officials say a record number of registered voters and interest in the presidential election created an early morning rush to cast ballots that created up to 45-minute delays between the 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. at nearly every polling site. The rush was followed by mid-morning calm, but poll watchers say they expect lunch hour visits to create more backups at the booths.

“Early morning, lunch-time and the evening are the traditionally busy times and, with as many people who turned out this morning, we’re expecting long waits at those peak times, as well,“ said Norm Taylor, who heads Charlottesville’s Walker School voting precinct.

Taylor said voters who don’t want to wait they should try and come in between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.

“If it’s going to be anything like this morning, it’ll be busy,“ he said. “This morning we were crushed. The line was out the door and at least 500 yards long and it stayed the way for probably the first hour. We had 425 people vote in that first hour.“

Taylor said a city decision to provide paper ballots along with the computerized voting machines helped stave off potential disaster. A morning glitch in the computerized system shut the machines down for a half-hour. The first 50 to 100 voters went back to the future, casting their votes via paper.

“We were pretty busy putting out the paper ballots,“ said poll worker Albert Kohn. “The lines were long and we had our heads down working steady.

At the Albemarle County’s precinct at the Senior Center Inc., more than 400 residents had cast ballots by 10 a.m., a busy day for the small precinct.

“It’s been steady right along and it was really busy this morning,“ said poll worker L.F. Wood. “It’s been a great turnout.“

Although no voting irregularities have been reported, there is some question to as spelling abilities. One voter at Albemarle High School noted that electronic signs directing voters to the ballot boxes advertised “AHS Poles” to use a particular entrance to the school.

“I’m not amused. I don’t find it funny,“ the voter, who asked to not be identified, said. “If they can’t spell ‘poll,‘ how do we know they can count?“

With record crowds and long voting lines predicted, Virginia election officials offer a few tips to smooth the process. First, vote when the lines are typically the shortest. That’s usually mid- to late morning and in the afternoon from about 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Avoid the early morning pre-work crowd, the lunch hour and especially the after-work crush. If you’re a new voter, check your polling place first. Do it online at http://www.sbe.virginia.gov or call the State Board of Elections at 800-552-9745.

And bring ID with you. Any of these work: drivers license, a military ID, a voter registration card, any federal or state or local government ID, an employer-issued photo ID or your Social Security card.

Virginia officials know of what they speak. Lawsuits alleging voter suppression surfaced recently, but a judge refused late Monday to extend poll hours or add voting machines to black precincts in some areas. The NAACP, in a federal lawsuit, demanded those changes, saying minority neighborhoods would experience overwhelming turnout and there weren’t enough electronic machines.

U.S. District Judge Richard Williams denied the motion for a preliminary injunction, but ordered election officials to publicize that people in line by 7 p.m., the polls’ closing time, would be allowed to cast ballots.

Republican John McCain’s campaign sued the Virginia electoral board hours before polls opened, trying to force the state to count late-arriving military ballots from overseas. McCain, a former POW from the Vietnam War, asked a federal judge to order state election officials to count absentee ballots mailed from abroad that arrive as late as Nov. 14.

Lawsuits have become common fodder in election battles. The 2000 recount meltdown in Florida was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. In Ohio, the 2004 turmoil over malfunctioning machines and long lines was beset by litigation.

What is uncommon about Tuesday’s contest is the sheer number of voters expected to descend on more than 7,000 election jurisdictions across the country.

Lines stretching around buildings and lasting for hours have already plagued many states with early voting, including Florida, Georgia and Colorado. Voter registration numbers are up 7.3 percent from the last presidential election. Democrats saw their registration numbers increase by 12.2 percent, while Republicans saw their ranks grow by only 1.7 percent, according to a recent analysis by The Associated Press.

About 50 percent of those going to the polls Tuesday will vote on a new system — something voting advocates fear may confuse folks. Armies of lawyers dispatched by political parties and candidates McCain and Democrat Barack Obama will monitor polling places looking for signs of vote tampering and voter intimidation.