The great upset in the City of Victoria鈥檚 election was the hour-and-a-half lineup to vote 鈥� a fiasco that lasted until 9:15 p.m.
The cause? It was the slow line to use the single ballot-scanner at the exit. As we stood shuffling a half hour to enter the gymnasium, a trickle of successful voters drifted out the door, almost a minute between them.
Then we entered the seething mob inside the gym, where it took almost an additional hour of just standing as the line slowly wound in endless concentric circles, waiting for a turn at the one slow scanner at the exit.
Why didn鈥檛 the designer of this mess just run half a dozen people through the process as a trial weeks ago, then rent the appropriate number of scanners for the expected number of voters? And don鈥檛 accept the ruse that: 鈥淭here were more voters than expected.鈥�
So many people just looked at the lineup, asked: 鈥淗ow long?鈥� were told: 鈥淎n hour,鈥� then just left. It almost amounted to 鈥渧oter suppression.鈥�
I have scrutineered in past elections, counting paper ballots by hand at the end. We sometimes were out within 15 minutes of polls closing. I think this new situation will only get worse if these scanners are needed to calculate results in a 鈥渢ransferable vote鈥� system.
John Hutchinson
Victoria
