Dozens Leave Upper Saucon Poll Without Voting After Waiting Hours
With some waiting as much as two hours to vote, several leave Calvary Bible Fellowship without casting a ballot.
For voters at Upper Saucon Township polling station number 3, the 2012 electoral process brought nothing but frustration.
While many polling stations reported short wait times, those who voted at Calvary Bible Fellowship faced extended wait times.
Dozens of voters reported waits approaching two hours to take their turn at the polls. Several dozen left the polling station in frustration without taking their turn to vote.
Voters reported that inside, the check-in table slowed the process, leaving as many as six of the 10 voting machines sitting empty at any given time.
Lehigh County election official Tim Benyo sent additional poll workers to Calvary Church in the late afternoon to try and alleviate the situation. "The longest part is looking people up in the books and they already have three people doing books," said Benyo. "I’m trying to find a person to send there." In the end, Benyo located additional workers, but the bottleneck proved to be a continued problem.
"I've voted in every election for the past 40 years," said Upper Saucon resident Walter Holliwell, who told reporters he had waited for close to 90 minutes before giving up. "My back hurts, my legs hurt, and I'm going home."
Holliwell isn't alone in his frustration. Several readers took to social media to express their anger at the long lines. "With so much technology hard to believe what some districts had such long lines all day," said Mary Lynn Ford Foley. "Took me an hour and half at 11:30."
Tell us, did you encounter lines? What could Lehigh County do next election cycle?
Motherof1
8:30 am on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
This is my polling station and I waited in line an hour around 3 PM. The paper that you fill out with your name could be handed out at the door and people can share pens. This would eliminate table #1. Table #2 divided the alphabet and required a signature; the alphabet could have been divided further. Yes, it is true that there were many empty polling machines when I got inside. It took me about 1 minute to vote. I also saw a few people leave, saying they had to get back to work. Had I been farther up in line, I would have gladly offered to let them cut in front of me.
Rowforlife
11:02 am on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
No more than 4 of the 10 voting machines were ever being used!! Terrible organization of the sign-in process with slow workers handling too much of the alphabet each (one third each). Either fund more poll workers or solicit volunteers in advance to have at least 5 signature book lines. This was an easy fix, even mid day it would have seemed, to fix the obvious problem. Just disgraceful.
slyfox
11:50 am on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
I was extremely pleased with the set-up at the Lower Milford Township Bldg. Everyone made voting simple, quick and pleasant. Thanks to LMT & the poll workers.
Brian
12:48 pm on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
This is where I voted yesterday. I have to wait for a long time in a previous presidential election, but like 11/6/2012. As the article stated the bottleneck was at the sign-in table. The alphabet should be split to at least 6 for a presidential election to help aliviate the problem. It took me 3 times going to the polls to be finally able to wait in the LONG line. I tried very early in the morning, the wait was already an hour. I then tried at 11:30am, still 30 - 60 minutes. I finally went after work and waited without worrying about the time constraint of getting to work.
Carl
2:32 pm on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
The Upper Saucon Township building had no line at 1:30. Had names split into several book sign ins. Just had to wait for some old bat ahead of me to stop yapping at the sign in book.
Joe Pappy
5:33 pm on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
I, for the first time in 30 years could not vote. I've never seen more of a cluster f**K in my life than this polling station..... I'm still pissed off.
sandy
5:53 pm on Thursday, November 8, 2012
My polling station is the Upper Saucon fire station. This is my first time voting where I did NOT encounter a line at all!