With all of the problems we are facing at home and abroad, indications are that President Obama is going to focus on one of the biggest of them in his upcoming State of the Union address: long lines at polling places.
You may think I am kidding. After all, unemployment is almost 8%. The economy is barely growing. President Obama says the sequester is a threat. Iran is getting closer and closer to having nuclear weapons. But for President Obama, it appears lines at voting booths will be a key issue next Tuesday.
He already mentioned it in his inaugural address, and The New York Times is pushing the issue:
“Several recent polls and studies suggest that long waiting times in some places depressed turnout in 2012 and that lines were longest in cities, where Democrats outnumber Republicans. In a New York Times/CBS News poll taken shortly after Election Day, 18 percent of Democrats said they waited at least a half-hour to vote, compared with 11 percent of independents and 9 percent of Republicans.
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology analysis determined that blacks and Hispanics waited nearly twice as long in line to vote on average than whites. Florida had the nation’s longest lines, at 45 minutes, followed by the District of Columbia, Maryland, South Carolina and Virginia, according to Charles Stewart III, the political science professor who conducted the analysis. …
Waiting times are ‘costing America a lot of votes,’ said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat who is sponsoring the Senate voting bill and expects to have the full support of the White House.”
After reporting that long lines may have cost Democrats “hundreds of thousands” of votes last November, the Times eventually gets to the real cause of the problem:
“In some other places, including counties and cities run by Democrats, local officials have not spent the money to open as many polling places.”
In other words, this is no conspiracy against Democratic voters (in spite of what some will try to claim). It’s just incompetent local government. And where are some of the worst lines and greatest incompetence? In places run by Democrats. In Charles Stewart’s list of longest lines, second and third places are occupied by the District of Columbia and Maryland, not what you would call hotbeds of Republicanism. Also, the Times reports that some states are really doing the job right. The average wait in California was only six minutes.
Lines at polling places are one of the most local issues we have. The federal government has lots of things to do. It does not need to worry about something that competent local officials can handle. If New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is really worried about lines at polling places in New York, instead calling President Barack Obama, she needs to call New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. He’s a Democrat. He’ll make sure Democrats get to vote.
The economy. Iran’s nuclear program. The deficit. Al Qaeda. Tax reform. These are national issues. The President and Congress need to deal with these things. Lines at voting booths are an issue for state and local government.
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