Researcher: Long lines at polls caused 49,000 not to vote (Florida)

Researcher: Long lines at polls caused 49,000 not to vote

By David Damron and Scott Powers, Orlando Sentinel
December 29, 2012

After working a 10-hour shift on Election Day, Richard Jordan headed to his east Orange County polling place at about 4:30 p.m. Based on more than a decade of voting, he expected to be in and out in minutes.

Three hours later, Jordan's back ached, he was hungry, thirsty — and nowhere near a voting booth. So he left. As it turned out, his Goldenrod Road precinct didn't close until 11 p.m.

"The line just wasn't moving," said the 42-year-old Democrat, who added that he now regrets not voting. "It was so depressing." Like Jordan, as many as 49,000 people across Central Florida were discouraged from voting because of long lines on Election Day, according to a researcher at Ohio State University who analyzed election data compiled by the Orlando Sentinel.

But before anyone gets too excited that this would have changed things (at least in Florida)...

About 30,000 of those discouraged voters — most of them in Orange and Osceola counties — likely would have backed Democratic President Barack Obama, according to Theodore Allen, an associate professor of industrial engineering at OSU.

About 19,000 voters would have likely backed Republican Mitt Romney, Allen said.

However, it does beg the question, if this "research" was to be conducted nationwide, as close as a race as it was, would it had affected the election results?

The article mentions similar research was done in the 2004 elections and around 20,000 ballots were not cast in Ohio. It'd be interesting to see the results of a nationwide research study.

They already have dead votes....

So, why should we care about impatient people?

Not like it will make a bit of difference.

i would hate for my vote not to count what a dead end!

What difference does it make, if both take money from the same people? Wether you employ mobster one, whom is payed by lucky Luciano in the policeforece, or higher mobster 2 payed by lucky luciano, you have in every case a mobster informing Lucky in the policeforce.

I voted this year by mail-in ballot, but who's to know what became of my vote once I dropped it in the mail. I didn't get a receipt of any sort or any confirmation that my vote was counted. The whole thing could be rigged across the board and I really would have no way of knowing and I would venture that not many would.

Wait, you mean the bulk of votes that were cast after several hours in line in other states, were counted... correctly?

Theres lots of voters complaining their vote for Mit was turned into a vote for Barry, and MSM graphs on election night scream fraud (ie, they kept showing American Obama & Mit as "tie" until the last minutes)

All in all, nobody's vote counts.. wasn't JFK assasinated for coming clean about americans' rouge gov?

That was Gov Scott cutting back on early voting because early voters tended to Vote Dem. It did not work of course.