A Few Bumps, but Overall Election Ran Smoothly for Voters

by James Parks, Nov 5, 2008

Long lines at voting places like this one in Madison, Wis., were common on Nov. 4.

The fears that yesterday’s record turnout would overwhelm the voting system and cause a replay of the problems in 2000 and 2004 did not materialize, in part because election officials were better prepared and because Sen. Barack Obama’s margin of victory was so large, potential disenfranchisement was not a factor in calling the election.

Says Lora Jo Foo, coordinator of the AFL-CIO’s My Vote, My Right program:

Because of the extensive voter education we did up to the election and working with election officials, we made it so that while there were problems, they weren’t systemic.

There were problems with things like long lines and machine breakdowns, but because we had good people on the ground working with election officials, we were able to move resources into those areas and help solve the problems.

Hundreds of My Vote, My Right volunteers worked with election officials in key battleground states to identify and alleviate potential problems before the election and monitored the polls for problems yesterday.

Monitors reported the biggest problems were in Virginia’s Tidewater area, with waits up to six or eight hours. In one area, the electronic voter registration verification system failed and 1,000 people were left in line without being able to vote. After the problem was fixed, hundreds remained in line until they could vote. At one Tidewater polling place, voters who had to wait four to six hours in line sang “We Shall Overcome.” The precinct reported that some 90 percent of the registered voters cast ballots.

Another reason for the relatively smooth vote was the size of the margin for Obama, meaning the snafus did not have an impact on the presidential vote. Says Jonah Goldman, director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law:

If it were as close as it was in 2000, we could have been very easily considered a meltdown.

There were also few reports of deliberate voter disenfranchisement (here and here).

Over all, it was a good day for voting—as many of those who sent in comments to our open thread on voting yesterday attest. Doug Chapin, director of electionline.org at the Pew Center on the States, told the Associated Press:

It was a massive undertaking with staggering levels of turnout. By and large the system did what it was supposed to….We didn’t have anything kind of like the meltdowns people feared would occur.

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