A bipartisan research group says it’s released the first data ever on election day lines and the wait time at the voting booth.
The study found that wait times at 92 percent of precincts were shorter than a half an hour.
Matthew Weil is with Bipartisan Policy Center. He said two main things impacted the time voters spent in line.
“One of those things was the number of registered voters assigned to the precinct itself. The other things that we know is certainly correlated with longer lines is the relative urban-ness.”
Chris Thomas is the former Michigan State Election Director. He said places that do have longer waits - like Detroit - are already enacting policies to shorten those waits.
“Detroit is a good example of what’s being done to minimize lines. They have reduced the size of their precincts so nearly all of their precincts are below one thousand voters.”
Michigan had the highest participation in the study from the Bipartisan Policy Center, roughly 50 counties shared data with researchers.