[EL] do long lines occur more in black precincts?

[Rausch, Dave]

A student paper from the University of California Berkeley looks at waiting times during the 2008 presidential primary election in California:

http://www.vote.caltech.edu/sites/default/files/Lines%20at%20Polling%20Stations.pdf

Dave Rausch

Dave Rausch, Ph.D.
Teel Bivins Professor of Political Science
Faculty Athletics Representative
Dept. of Political Science and Criminal Justice
West Texas A&M University
Canyon, TX 79016-0001
(806) 651-2423    Fax: (806) 651-3610

My webpage:
                http://www.wtamu.edu/~jrausch

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Michael Peshkin
Sent: Monday, October 22, 2012 10:38 AM
To: law-election at uci.edu
Subject: [EL] do long lines occur more in black precincts?

Back in '08 I published a study suggesting that long lines at polling places may especially afflict black voters.

Rick asked on this list "I'd be interested to hear from others if the methodology of this study is sound (especially in its reliance on news reports of long lines)."   After which I got pilloried.

Now we're again about to see news footage of those determined black voters in Ohio waiting in line for hours -- and nothing about the ones who went home to feed the kids.

Is it even possible to measure the wait time - vs - race statistics?   Are there practical yet methodologically sound sampling techniques?

Has anyone ever done it?   What do you guess they would find?

And would it matter?   Is the elasticity known, for turnout - vs - wait time?

--

Article: http://inthesetimes.com/article/4068/are_long_lines_the_new_poll_tax/

Graph: http://peshkin.mech.northwestern.edu/longlines/longlines-vs-black.pdf

Discussion on this list: http://mailman.lls.edu/pipermail/election-law/2008-December/date.html


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