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Something has felt off about the upcoming election & I was almost asleep tonight when I realized what was bugging me...
There are 6,800 voters in the 2 precincts that are now supposed to all be voting on Friday at one location over 11 hours
that is over 600 voters per hour if every registered voter takes their right to vote, or
10 voters per minute
I have worked as an intake volunteer at polls in Keaau in the past, and never did we have 10 voters per minute every minute of the day.
Is this even possible to do?
even if only 1/2 of the voters show up, 5 voters per minute every minute is still higher than I remember seeing...
Does anyone know who could answer this logistics ?, or know of any precinct in Hawaii County (or state) that has been able to handle 6,800 registered voters in a day?
How many Office of Election staff personnel & volunteers are scheduled to work this Friday holiday?
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Something Rob said in another thread really struck me about the last couple of elections. I'm paraphrasing because it's late and don't have the energy to look it up, but he said something like "we had a manufactured disaster the last time, now we have a natural disaster". But now I think we may have a new manufactured disaster on the way.
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There was really low voter turnout even for absentee ballots, something like 30%--add in a natural disaster, and I would guess fewer than 1000 people will actually show up to vote. That's only...um, wait, let's say 1100 people vote, that's 100 per hour or 1-2/3 voters per minute.
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I believe that the average voter turnout in other Puna districts was only about 14%. Even for national elections, Hawaii turnout doesn't come close to 50% - a shameful statistic in my opinion - a crisis in terms of participatory democracy possibly, but hardly numbers that represent a logistical crisis at the polls. In my polling station, there were about 20 voting booths for paper and electronic so it was easily able to accommodate the "crush".
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Ahh...but then there is the "Storm Factor"
We have seen first hand in the Chicago area how that can factor in to a vote, even throw a "machine" election...
Even if there is a 30% turnout that is over 3 people per minute EVERY minute for 11hours...
You have to then figure how many booths/voting machines by how long it take to normally vote (looking over the ballot (remember most first see all of the options in the booth)
My questions are
How is the Elections Office planning to make sure they can handle at least 3 people per minute every minute and at most 10 people per minute every minute?
Have they ever had this volume a one precinct in the past?
How will they handle an overflow of people at the polls if there is an overflow (ie, more than their planned people per minute)?
What will they do if many of these people show up after work (will they close at 6:30PM, or remain open until everyone that is at the poll by 6:30PM has voted)?
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In another post it was stated that the news is stating 12 voting machines will be in place & people may bring their absentee ballots in...
How many people will be manning the polls?
What is the turn-around time per machine?
Can 12 machines handle 1400-6800 people in 11 hours?
Will Puna residents have to wait in long lines to vote, after a week of long lines for water & ice?
Will the polls close on time, even if there are people waiting in line to vote?
These are all real questions, ones I have personally seen not addressed in the aftermath of devastating storm.
The problem is if there is no plan, the people of Puna will be the ones left in line...
If there is no plan for this, will the Office of Elections director pay for it with his job?
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So, just curious, but how long does it take to vote? I'd guess it took me about 5 minutes to do written ballot, including checking in. Maybe even longer as I had to return to the booth as I didn't mark the upper left corner for which party. Sophie voted electronic and it took her twice as long, so guessing 10 minutes. And this was in our very ungrounded polling place.
Might it make sense to just designate a place and let people vote for say 5-7 days using same procedures as early voting? Maybe even reopen the county office as a second place?
David
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David, that was my guess from volunteer doing intact in our Keaau Precinct years ago...
I just do not see the minutes in the day, esp if there is an uptick in voters showing up...
Also do not think it would be wise to have a long line of voters waiting to vote, esp. this week...
If the Office of Elections is smart, they will have this planned out...if not, I do hope there is a total overhaul of that office!
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Spread the vote out over several days to a week, as has been suggested ... and instead of giving away those cute little "I voted!" stickers, throw in a free bag of ice maybe?
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Ice may not be something that can be handed out by Friday, if Ali`i Ice stays shutdown
