Clayton County Voters Stand In 12-Hour Lines

[2QT2BSTR8]

Source: WSBTV.com via CNN

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. -- While the polls officially closed at 7 p.m. Monday night in Clayton County, the line to vote at the Frank Bailey Senior Center in Riverdale didn't clear up until 1 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Advance voting began in Georgia Monday -- and the first day proved to be a long one for many voters.

Clayton County voter Patricia Lewis finally voted in Riverdale after standing in line to vote for six hours. "I vote in every election and I couldn't pass this one up. I think about my dad, about the struggles he went through and for me to vote again is just amazing," Lewis.

VIDEO: Clayton County Voters Stand In 12-Hour Lines - http://www.wsbtv.com/video/17819498/index.html

When asked about the long line, Lewis said, "It's OK. I stand in lines to shop. Six hours to vote...it's nothing."

Lewis had lots of people to keep her company. For much of the day, Clayton County voters stood in line for eight to nine hours to cast their ballots.

# COUNTY-BY-COUNTY: Advance, Early Voting Sites
# FULL LIST: Advance, Early Voting Sites For Every County In Georgia

# VOTER GUIDE: WSB-TV Voter Guide Can Help You Pick Candidates

Clayton County's election supervisor, Annie Bright, blamed the state. She said the computer mainframe the state uses to check voter registration became overwhelmed and didn't start working correctly until 4:30 p.m. Monday. The Secretary of State's Office said Clayton County should take the blame. The office said back-ups took place intermittently and didn't last long enough to cause eight hour delays.

Read more: http://www.wsbtv.com/news/17819448/detail.html

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Please remind everyone you know that they need to early vote! I commented to my partner when we were standing in a quick moving 2 1/2 hour line on Saturday in Irving, Texas that it was great to see so many people come out to early vote. He stated to me, "hopefully we will see more than 20% of registered voters come out and vote this election". To which I replied back that "the sad thing is, in most of the country, our democratic voting system is only designed to handle 20% of registered voters". While I have no data or articles that back up my statement, I think it is already evident that the system is straining just to keep up with early voting, and I have a serious concern about people that wont wait if they see a line on Election Day.

[2QT2BSTR8]

1. Does anyone know of a site for reporting or reported queue times for early voting?

[3waygeek]

21. IIRC, Forsyth county is the only one offering

anything like that -- at least that's what I read in the AJC on Monday. Seems like small compensation for having to live there.

[deadmessengers]

2. Seven hours in Cobb County

I voted yesterday in Cobb, and it took seven hours.

[RebelOne]

3. Well, I sort of expected there were going to be long lines here in Georgia,

so I voted by absentee ballot. It was very easy. I just downloaded the application form, faxed it in, and received my ballot by mail within 2 days. Sure beats standing in line for hours.

[4lbs]

4. What the hell is up with their computer network?!?!?!?

I've set up WANs that could process thousands of transactions per minute, from different computers in a 500 mile radius.

Are those guys still using 300baud modems, phone lines, and 1980s style 8-bit computers? Geez.

[Robbien]

19. They do this on purpose. This is a state which has a GOP Secretary of State

Every state which is controlled by a GOP SoS has long lines.

[Phred42]

5. Those responsible for this should be in Jail

And should NEVEr be in control of this again.

I've never waited more that 1 min to vote since 1968 - in IL, OR or FL

I don't get it

[CurtEastPoint]

10. Blame GOP SOS Karen Handel and her minions, plus our idiotic GOP GA Legislature n/t

[RamboLiberal]

6. Clayton County(GA) Voters Stand In 12-Hour Lines(Till 1AM)

Source: WSBTV

While the polls officially closed at 7 p.m. Monday night in Clayton County, the line to vote at the Frank Bailey Senior Center in Riverdale didn't clear up until 1 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Advance voting began in Georgia Monday -- and the first day proved to be a long one for many voters.

Clayton County voter Patricia Lewis finally voted in Riverdale after standing in line to vote for six hours. "I vote in every election and I couldn't pass this one up. I think about my dad, about the struggles he went through and for me to vote again is just amazing," Lewis.

When asked about the long line, Lewis said, "It's OK. I stand in lines to shop. Six hours to vote...it's nothing."

Lewis had lots of people to keep her company. For much of the day, Clayton County voters stood in line for eight to nine hours to cast their ballots.

Read more: http://www.wsbtv.com/news/17819448/detail.html

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WOW. Hope there are lots of Obama votes!

[yourout]

7. If they waited 8 hours you can bet its an Obama vote.

You can bet Puke filled precincts have more than enough machines and/or ballots.

Dems....not so much.

[CurtEastPoint]

8. I just saw this on WSB's site. This is ABSOLUTELY CRAZY! Votin' needs fixin'!

Why do we not have uniform standards for voting nationwide? I KNOW I KNOW...state functions, etc. But omigod this is insane. Valid people being tossed off rolls, people waiting 12 hours, machine glitches (yeah, right) and so on.

THIS SYSTEM NEEDS TO BE FIXED and SOON!

It is amazing that the US, with all the technical bravado, is like a third-world country when it comes to our elections. What's up with that?

Suggestions?

[4lbs]

9. Why is it that some parts of the country are still using computer systems that appear to have been

made in the 1970s or early 1980s?

[Loki]

11. Does it surprise any of us

that Georgia's Secretary of State is Karen Handel...............and................................she's a REPUBLICAN. But, good news coming out of Georgia today.

Thousands of flagged voters can vote, court rules
Posted: 08:23 PM ET
(CNN) — Georgia must allow thousands of people whose citizenship was questioned by the state's new voter verification system to vote in the upcoming election, a panel of federal judges ruled Monday.

The court ruling will affect about 4,500 people in Georgia who had been "flagged" by the new voter verification system and faced being denied a chance to vote Nov. 4 because their citizenship was questioned.

It could also affect more than 50,000 other registered Georgia voters also flagged by the new system because of mismatches in their personal identification information, such as discrepancies in addresses.

The three-judge panel also ordered Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel to inform all the flagged voters that they can vote.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/27/thousands-of-flagged-voters-can-vote-court-rules/#more-26801

[Doctor_J]

12. Another SoS that needs to be jailed

this is a federal offense.

[Puppyjive]

13. Election reform is badly needed

Every state in the nation should allow vote by mail. I am an Oregon resident and we have the convenience of voting at home. We can vote with our voter's pamphlet right next to us, and we have about 2 or 3 weeks to fill out the ballot. We can mail or drop off our ballots. I can't imagine people standing in line for 12 hours to vote. Here in Oregon, we don't have to miss any time off from work to vote. I'm beginning to think that some states do not want to change their election methods because it is currently too easy to manipulate the results.

[Tafiti]

16. Hell yes.

Fellow Oregonian here, and our voting system flat-out rocks. Paper, mail-in ballots that can be filled out at your convenience, in your own home, and mailed in or dropped off at any time before or on Election Day.

There needs to be federal legislation that mandates the same voting standards nationwide, based on Oregon's system. Making people stand in line for hours is madness, and proportionately disadvantages the poor. Methinks far more people would vote if there wasn't a 12-14 hour designated day and time to vote, but instead gave people a 3-week window to do it.

[KamaAina]

14. Here's a shocker (sarcasm): Clayton is a majority African American county

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clayton_County,_Georgia#Demographics

As of the census<2> of 2000, there were 236,517 people, 82,243 households, and 59,214 families residing in the county. The population density was 1,658 people per square mile (640/km²). There were 86,461 housing units at an average density of 606 per square mile (234/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 37.94% White, 51.55% Black or African American, 0.32% Native American, 4.49% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 3.55% from other races, and 2.08% from two or more races. 7.50% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

Estimated 2006 population is 271,240, with a racial make-up of 20.4% white non-hispanic, 62.9% African American, 5% Asian, 11.3% Hispanic or Latino, 0.4% American Indian or Alaska Naive, and 0.1% Pacific Islander. 1.5% were reported as multi-racial.

Who would ever have thought that a repuke SoS would somehow forget to set up enough polling places in a county with those demographics?! :eyes: :sarcasm:

[EFerrari]

20. And they're at it with impunity because Bush gutted the Voters Rights office

at DoJ.

I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL THESE CRIMINALS ARE OUT ON THEIR @SSES!

[BrklynLiberal]

15. Props to those voters who remained, and INSISTED on their right to VOTE!!

That is amazing..
:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

What is horrifying, is that it was necessary for an American citizen to have to stand on line for 12 hours to vote!!!!
There is only one way to describe this situation: VOTER SUPPRESSION!!!

[trashcanistanista]

17. Yes!!!

These voters are true patriots. They should be commended.:kick:

[dysfunctional press]

18. how many people are in some of these precincts?

when i was election-judging in chicago, our entire precinct had less than 400 voters- even if everyone got there at the same time, it wouldn't take twelve hours for all of them to vote.

[2QT2BSTR8]

22. According to the county board of elections it looks like

95,000 to 135,000 registered voters.

http://www.co.clayton.ga.us/election/final_results/index.htm