You can imagine the orange-to-yellow areas as the extremes of the bell curve, and only about 10% of the actual results varied that far from the formulas’ predicted results. , you can make informed resource allocation decisions and avoid long waits at the polls. After attracting national attention for long voting lines in 2012 (with a 45-minute average), Florida saw a scant 6-minute average wait time in 2016. But, remember that your estimated vote time also comes with a range. State-level patterns add some nuance to this overall improvement — the plot here shows the yearly average wait time for the last three general elections at the state level: Although some states’ wait times have remained fairly stable over time, others have seen considerable improvement. Voters in Washington D.C., Michigan, Maryland, Virginia, and Montana also saw decreases in their average wait to vote.

Voters arriving in the morning at Atlanta's State Farm Arena, the home of the NBA's Hawks — and the state's largest early voting site, with 300 voting machines — encountered technical issues, which election officials blamed on problems with the electronic poll pads.

By collecting data, you’ll join this group of election officials and researchers who have generously provided data to help develop this tool. While the issue would later fade from public discussion about the 2016 election, at the time, long wait times during the primary and general elections were, at the time, a high-profile topic for heightened scrutiny and debate. To minimize wait times on Election Day, election officials need an estimate of how long, on average, it will take voters to mark the ballot. Since our estimate was 3.2, we entered 3.2 into the avg. We have found that, even with the same ballot and voting style, individual polling places can sometimes have vote times that differ as widely as the extremes our formulas predict. (Note that the results don’t change when the size of each state’s voting population is accounted for.). min. (Some prescient voters brought along portable chairs. After long lines and wait times made headlines in 2012, Barack Obama cast a national spotlight on the issue, mentioning it in his election night speech as well as the following year’s State of the Union address. Martin Natatorium and Recreation Center in Atlanta. To minimize wait times on Election Day, election officials need an estimate of how long, on average, it will take voters to mark the ballot. This post explores the measure in the EPI data, and some of the surrounding research on wait times. Member station WABE reported Monday that the state has 7.6 million registered voters in this election — a record number for Georgia.

The same research that showed this trend also found that even within the same jurisdictions, areas that trend whiter in population are less likely to experience long wait times than their non-white counterparts. Georgia voters endured long lines on the first day of early voting on Monday at the C.T. Looking at data from these elections, how have voting wait times changed? ElectionTools.org is a collection of free resources to help election officials improve the voter experience. The “Voting Wait Time” indicator in the EPI captures the average time spent waiting in line to vote at the polls. by: Kate Winkle. When asked “approximately, how long did you have to wait in line to vote?” survey-takers in 2016 could indicate: Responses were then converted to average minutes spent waiting based on these ranges, producing the metric used for “Voting Wait Time” in the EPI. The yellow color designates the extremes of the range. Curbside Voting Service is available during Early Voting and Election Day to any voter who is physically unable to enter the polling place without personal assistance or likelihood of injuring your health, Curbside Voting is available.
We invite you to advance research on voting times and help improve this tool by contributing voting time data yourself! Wait times are generally seen as an indication of how easy it is to cast a vote; long waits to vote can be a barrier to greater public political participation. Still looking at any multiselect races on your ballot, enter the total number of selections the voter may select in all multiselect races in the Total selections in all field. The Voting Time Estimator provides a range of average voting times that are likely for your ballot and voting style. If you don’t have any of a type of race, you should enter 0. If you have data you’ve collected, or if you want to collect data using the simple, free Voting Timer App, get in touch with us at [email protected].
The GOP’s Non-Platform Represents the New Political Reality: Who You Are Against Matters More than…, Pompeo’s Religion Is Carrying More Sway in US Foreign Policy, more than an hour (where the respondent supplied an exact waiting time), or. Other election officials seem to be exploring VBM as a promising way to address wait time problems in the future; states like California have begun to follow suit in implementing their own VBM systems. Based on data collected from a variety of elections held across the United States, this tool will help you estimate how much time voters will spend in the voting booth. If you have an assistant with you, when you arrive at the polling location, have them notify the election official at that time. Although the Voting Time Estimator gives estimates with a high degree of confidence, we’re continuing to improve it by collecting data on voting times. The EPI dataset includes wait time averages at the state level for the last three presidential elections and the 2014 midterm election. So, even with the extremes of the voting time estimate, our predicted wait times are generally reasonable.

), The line of voters at George Pierce Park in Suwanee.... pic.twitter.com/3stVPEuyZp. Based on data collected from a variety of elections held across the United States, this tool will help you estimate how much time voters will spend in the voting booth. Why I’m For Bernie Sanders Over Elizabeth Warren.

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For our sample ballot, the estimator states that there’s a 90% chance that the average voting time will fall between 2.4 and 4 minutes, with the exact middle (and most likely) time being about 3.2 minutes.

Georgia Voters Wait In Hours-Long Lines At Polls For Early Balloting Voters spent as much as five hours waiting to cast in-person ballots. pic.twitter.com/dbcHcIRrf8, A reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution posted a video of voters in the town of Suwanee, about 45 minutes outside of Atlanta, in a line that stretched around a block. The possible maximum voting wait, indicated with the dotted pink line, is about 15 minutes at its highest point. So, we can conclude that our estimated average vote time of 3.2 minutes will not lead to significant waits at the polling place. While some voters said that concerns about mail-in voting prompted their in-person wait, one voter named Viola Hardy told the 11 Alive reporter: "I think people are just really ready to vote, and it doesn't matter how long it takes — we will stand in line to vote. If you have the contents of your ballot, you’re ready to use the estimator. The Voting Time Estimator will provide you with a reasonable estimate based on the contents of your ballot and your voting method (paper ballots or electronic voting). Early voting opened Monday in Georgia for the 2020 general election — but the first day was marred by technical issues and lines that in some locations stretched more than five hours long, particularly in the Atlanta metro area.

The wait time data that the EPI draws from for its “Voting Wait Time” indicator confirms that this racial disparity continued in 2016. The data that you contribute will benefit election officials across the country. Let’s look first at the distribution of state voting times and the average national wait time in each election year: In general, we can see that there’s been a trend toward shorter wait times.

You can find more work from him at his blog or Twitter page. Why does the length of time it takes to vote matter?

To understand how your estimated vote time can impact wait times at the polls, you can use your estimate with the Polling Place Resource Planner. With your ballot information entered, click the Calculate button to get your estimate. She got in line at 6:20am. Her name is Viola Hardy. The tool is easy and doesn’t require any preparation to use.