When I voted there were no long lines. And on election day itself there didn't seem to be reports of a problem lingering through the day. At opening there was often a line built up but as the day progressed these lines dwindled down.
At my polling place the "fill in the oval" method is used. You get a huge ballot sheet and fill in the oval of your choices with a black ink pen. When you are finished you take the ballot to a scanner and your votes are scanned in. There is a paper record and the votes are electronically tabulated.
Here is the process where I live:
The sign in desk had 3 staff.
Step 1: had you sign a signature card and show ID.
Step 2: checked you against the voter roll.
Step 3: handed you the ballot and explained what to do next.Each of these steps took about 15 to 30 seconds.
Step 4: queue waiting for a voting station.
There were four of the portable voting desks that many of you have seen. The voting desks have fold up screens on three sides to offer some privacy. In addition to the four voting desks the staff had set up four additional desks with cardboard screens. This brought the total "fill in the dot" stations to 8.
Step 5: fill in your selections.
I will tell you that step 5 was the bottleneck. The ballot had the national races, state races and proposals, and a bunch of judges and other "stuff". If a voter actually weighed in on every single issue they probably had to fill in 20 ovals. Assuming they knew their choices in advance (hahaha) it might only take 2 minutes. I watched some people stand there for 10 minutes.
Step 6: have your ballot scanned. There was one scanner. This took about 10-15 seconds, including banter.
The staff could have increased output by adding a few more tables if needed.
What went on in your area?
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