[EL] time at the polling booth

[Mark Scarberry]

To the extent that voters who take a long time create long lines that discourage others from voting, there might be some generous time limit for non-disabled and non-elderly voters. It’s outrageous that some voters have to wait in long lines to vote. But I doubt that slow voting is a serious contributor to that problem.

Mark

Mark S. Scarberry
Professor of Law
Pepperdine University
Rick J. Caruso School of Law
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From: Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> on behalf of Rich,William D <rich at uakron.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, July 8, 2020 9:55:23 AM
To: Douglas, Joshua A. <joshuadouglas at uky.edu>
Cc: Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: Re: [EL] time at the polling booth

Ohio is liberal by comparison with Tennessee.  The time limit is 10 minutes, and it applies only when all of the voting machines or privacy booths are in use and voters are waiting to use them.  Enforcement is not rigorous.

Bill Rich
University of Akron School of Law and
Chairman, Summit County Board of Elections

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On Jul 8, 2020, at 9:07 AM, Douglas, Joshua A. <joshuadouglas at uky.edu> wrote:

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Rick,

This is not entirely responsive, but at least one state--Tennessee--actually mandates how long a voter may spend casting a ballot. Here is a description from my article State Judges and the Right to Vote:


a Tennessee appellate court broadly interpreted a Tennessee

statute regulating how much time a voter may spend in the voting booth so as

to effectuate an individual’s constitutional right to vote.176 The statute at issue

limited a voter to five minutes in the voting booth if other voters were waiting

and otherwise to a maximum of ten minutes.177 The evidence showed that,

because of a lengthy ballot and some precincts using new machines, there

were long lines on Election Day.178 Almost half of all voters took longer than

five minutes to vote, while five percent took longer than ten minutes.179 The court rejected the losing candidate’s argument that this evidence demonstrated that illegal votes tainted the election, noting that the voters’ failure to comply with the time limit was not a “serious” violation of the statute.180 Quoting theTennessee Supreme Court, the court explained, “[T]echnical non-conformity with election statutes will not necessarily void an election, as ‘such strictness would lead to defeat rather than uphold, popular election, and can not be maintained.’”181


The underlying case is Stuart v. Anderson Cty. Election Comm’n, 300 S.W.3d 683, 690 (Tenn. Ct. App.2009).


Josh

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From: Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> on behalf of Pildes, Rick <rick.pildes at nyu.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, July 8, 2020 8:00 AM
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Subject: [EL] time at the polling booth

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Does anyone know of data about how much time voters typically spend casting their ballots in the actual polling booth?  I’m sure this varies depending on how many races/issues are on the ballot, particularly in states that have a number of ballot initiatives to vote on in certain years.  I’m aware of the good piece by Dan Smith and Michael Herron in Electoral Studies, but that’s based on one polling place in a low turnout election in NH.



I assume most voters spend less than five minutes, but I’d appreciate any information that might be out there, whether empirical studies or even good anecdotal reporting.



Thanks.



Best,

Rick



Richard H. Pildes

Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law

NYU School of Law

40 Washington Square So.

NYC, NY 10014

212 998-6377



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