Why Are Lines So Long in NYC For Early Voting? Folks Are Waiting Hours

Answer: Sheer Enthusiasm + Fewer Polling Spots

“Why are lines so long on these early days of voting and people have to wait so long?” It’s a question I’ve seen posted online within social networks. It’s near impossible to escape all the many postings on Twitter and Facebook showing folks on early-voting lines spanning block after block after block.

Today, on the second day of early voting in NYC, such posts are saying that the lines are much longer than they were yesterday.

I thought the answer might’ve been obvious. But then that’s nothing but a guess based upon a presumption of mine.

That is, the numbers of early polling spots aren’t as many as those found on election day.

So I had a look and sure enough that’s the case.

As per the NYC Board of Elections info page for Early Voting there’s the following:

Borough followed by number of Early Poll Sites:

Manhattan: 16
Bronx: 17
Brooklyn: 27
Queens: 18
Staten Island: 9
Grand Total: 87

By contrast are the numbers of Election Day Polling Places.

As per the information provided by NYC Open Data:

Again, Borough followed by number of Election Day Poll Sites:

Manhattan: 275
Bronx: 188
Brooklyn: 398
Queens: 287
Staten Island: 80
Grand Total: 1,228

Keep in mind that the above data might be off just a slight bit here and there but any discrepancies/variations should be so small as to not steer us away from the main point.

Which is to say, the reason why lines as so long and folks are waiting for hours in some cases is due to there being an extraordinary low number of polling sites as compared to those found on election day. Throw in the sheer enthusiasm and you get lines spanning blocks and blocks.