College students at two local universities spent a frustrating day trying to make sure their vote was cast.
Voters at Lincoln University basically camped out to make sure their vote would be counted Tuesday.
Some people waited in line as long as 6 hours to vote, according to The Election Protection team – the nation’s largest non-partisan voter protection coalition.
Were these huge wait times the result of a large increase in voters this election season? Not entirely.
The Lincoln polling location used a paper ballot system.
As part of this process, voters walked into a booth with a paper sheet, marked off who they would like to vote for and then took that paper ballot over to a scanning machine which recorded the vote.
The problem arised with the scanning machine. There was only one machine at the location and it caused delays in processing votes.
The team estimated that the last votes would not be cast until as late as 1 am Wednesday.
Over at West Chester University students were waiting in 3 to 4 hour long lines most of the day Tuesday.
Some students even had to leave their spot in line to go to class then come back and start all over again.
What was slowing down the process?
Monitors at the site were reporting that poll workers were asking every single student for identification even if the student was not a new voter and had already voted at the polling place before, according to NBC 10’s Lu Ann Cahn.
Election judges were making their own rules and weren’t cooperating either, the common cause monitors said.
Local
Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
This is against election rules, check your Voter Registration card:
“Under law you must present a form of identification to the election officials on Election Day the first time you vote in a new election district, division or precinct.”
Volunteers were passing out food and water hoping to keep West Chester students in line.
The last student in line by 8:00 pm caste their vote around 9:30 pm, which was when voting, ended altogether.
The University may have seen a turnout of 75% this election, way up from the usual 5% turnout for students in past elections.
