Natalie Delgadillo
Voters in two D.C. precincts Tuesday morning had more than rainy weather to contend with as they tried to cast their ballots. At the polling place in Eastern Market, where people in both precinct 88 and 89 are assigned to vote, lines stretched outside and bottlenecks formed at the single vote counting machine available for use. According to reporters on the scene, vote wait times were as long as two hours.
DC Voting mess! Only one vote-counting machine at Eastern Market Capitol Hill site where TWO precincts vote (88 &89). Voting taking as much as two hours. One count machine? Why? @kojoshow @wcp pic.twitter.com/QvtSj3xfid
— Tom Sherwood (@tomsherwood) November 6, 2018
at the Eastern Market polling place near Capitol Hill, it’s taking voters over an hour to vote. reason? there’s only *one* ballot box for *all* submissions — voters keep circling the room until they reach the front. “The fucking system sucks in there,” one guy told me. pic.twitter.com/Q0hOOMKGle
— j.d. durkin (@jd_durkin) November 6, 2018
I’ll just say — as I stand in line at a polling place that astoundingly has only one machine to receive ballots — that long voting lines are maddening.
It’s a political choice that politicians inflict upon us for political reasons.
It shouldn’t and doesn’t have to be this way.
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) November 6, 2018
Rachel Coll, a spokesperson for the D.C. Board of Elections, says that Eastern Market is the assigned polling place for two precincts since the 2016 election, when the 88th precinct was moved. Despite that, the board only provided one vote counting machine to the polling place, which Coll says is typical of most—if not all—other polling places in the city. After the board heard about the long lines on Twitter, Coll says, they decided to send another machine along with some extra staff.
Still, lines remained long and frustration remained high. In the late afternoon, reports surfaced that one of the two voting machines on site was jamming because it got full. BOE has sent another voting machine to replace the second broken one, Coll says.
Long lines still wrapping around (and outside) North Hall in Eastern Market as 1 out of 2 ballot machines keeps jamming. Spotted one worker opening the box multiple times to readjust ballots. Board of Elections says it's dropping off a 3rd machine (after dropping a 2nd earlier) pic.twitter.com/UV0vyEZRob
— Sloane Airey (@SloaneAirey) November 6, 2018
According to Twitter reports, a few people left lines at the polling place in frustration.
.@MayorBowser Someone just trashed their ballot in frustration at the length of time it is taking at #EasternMarket to just hand in their completed ballot. Wait time > 40 minutes. NOT OK!!!! #Decision2018
— Sarah D Cissna, CSEP (@sdcissna) November 6, 2018
It wasn’t until about 5 p.m. that lines seemed to calm down, with three functioning voting machines on site.
Just checked again at 5 pm. There are 3 ballot machines in there now, all working and the lines and wait times are down
— Sam Ford (@SamFord7News) November 6, 2018
https://twitter.com/jsprig/status/1059932358399442944
This post has been updated with additional information from the Board of Elections. A Tweet indicating that the BOE brought two extra voting machines earlier in the afternoon has been deleted. The BOE brought one extra machine earlier in the afternoon, and an additional machine later on.
