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High voter turnout prompts resource concerns for Nov

By Thad Hall

USA Today has a warning: Voters may turn out in November. Ok, seriously, they have a story noting that

Record turnout in this year's presidential primaries has election officials worried about possible shortages of machines, ballots and poll workers in November.

Now here is the funny part about the story: look at the picture that accompanies the story. There is a huge line to check in to vote, but no line to actually vote. (They show an open voting machine in the picture!) The registration problem is the one that no one talks about. In all of these statues, we had 1 race on the ballot and long lines to vote because checking in to vote is slow. In all of these states, it was the same story; one race on the ballot and lines.

Now in November, we will have 2 sets of lines: check in and machine lines. But the check in will still be the initial bottle neck. Of course, this story is not as sexy, but voter registration probably is the invisible 1,000 gorilla in the room for this election season. (Thanks to Doug Chapin for the invisible gorilla analogy).

Full post as published by Election Updates on February 29, 2008 (boomark / email).