Long waits in the Detroit area
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/11/04/art.detroit.lines.jpg caption=" Michigan residents stand in line waiting to vote in the presidential election at the Coleman Young Community Center in Detroit."]
(CNN) - Estimates on the longest voting lines in Detroit, Michigan were as high as 5 hours. Election Protection, a non-partisan voting watch dog group, reported a 5 hour, 1,000 person long line at Detroit's Beth Eden Baptist Church earlier on Election Day. They said it was largely due to understaffed polling stations. While state officials echo that lines were long, especially in the morning rush, they couldn't confirm voters waited 5 hours at this location. "We heard a report that 1000 people waited 5 hours but when we got there at 3:00 pm, there were 100 people inside, 100 people outside and they had waited two and a half hours," said Kelly Chesney, Spokeswoman for Michigan's Secretary of State. They expect lines to swell again as people get out of work and while most polls close statewide at 8pm ET, 4 of Michigan's western counties, Dickinson, Gogebic, Iron, and Menominee, are in the Central time zone and polls close there at 9pm ET (8pm CT). Voters still standing in line at 8pm will be allowed to cast their vote.
Updated 5:38 p.m.
Those people know how much we need Obama and Biden. They are a hearty bunch – they'll wait in line.
We have to get rid of the hate-riddled republicans. Every ad in NC from the republicans is vile and nasty. NO MORE REPUBLICANS.
It would have been a lot worse if we did not have early voting.
Man, is probably gonna take HOURS to count those votes!! This is crazy!!! We're just waiting for the numbers and all that good stuff but wow, I knew it was gonna be this crazy but never like Britney Spears...you know, wild, unorganized or crazy, LOL!!!
Come on dynasty...
History does not come without effort keep on voting
GOD BLESS AMERICA
hopefully everyone gets to vote.
24 comments in 26 minutes and the blog closes?
Seriously, if you go to Fox News you will see that they leave their blogs open for days, and you'll see my usual moniker, "Tired of the Lies" in several of them.
I'm not a conservative but I've gotten too pissed off at how few CNN blog articles I can contribute to. I just clicked on "add a comment" on one of your articles, typed stuff, and then hit submit, only to be told that the blog had closed in the 2 minutes I took to type.
You're losing readers to your competition because of your blog policies! Six months ago you weren't like this. Please become blogger-friendly again!!
I wonder if they had a man wearing a beret and carrying a big stick?
It's one of the most important elections of American history. A little wait wont hurt the people, regardless they are republicans or democrats.
Man, we really need to work this voting thing out. This is starting to become comical. This is the USA. There is no reason people should have to wait this long to vote. All of these problems are rediculous. I mean, we've only been voting for how long now. Come on people. We have to do better.
hey sarah, hey bachmann – THOSE ARE THE REAL AMERICANS!!!!!!!
Stay strong and stay in line!
We need a commanding defeat for the Reptilians, so no one has to listen to the whining.
To all the Bush voters, now you know how it feels!!!
Vote! If you're voting for Barack Obama, that is.
I was in a longer than usual line in one of the suburbs of Detroit this morning, and all I could think about was the people in Iraq who risked their lives and walked many miles, in some cases, to be able to exercise their right to vote. I'm sure most of the people waiting in line felt similar to me – what an honor to live in a country where I can vote.
How could I complain about waiting? Can it be better? Sure, it can be better, but at its worst, a less than perfect election process is better than none at all.
Thankful to be an American!
Does anybody know if there is a union for operating the Polling booths?
What genius thought it was a good idea to hand a 'poll watcher' certificate to a black panther AND allow him to wear his uniform to the polling station in Philly?
Waiting hours to vote is absolutley ridiculous. It will probably put people off of voting. Why is there not a Federal Election Committee so that all states organize voting the same. Would it not be prudent to have more polling centres to eleviate the long wait. How does that affect the senior voters. Crazy!!
I'm sure that someone will say "economic impact" but maybe we should declare a "national holiday" (if only for 1/2 of a day) to allow people to vote in the Presidential Election – after all its only every 4 years! – Unless they can improve the voting system itself – like early voting everywhere – I feel for people standing in line for over 1 hour – I cannot stand that long before my leg will start hurting and I'm sure there are folks with worse problems than mine.
Detroit has suffered the worst in this economy. They are ready for CHANGE! This story is more sad an amazing. This country is in serious trouble.
Obama/ Biden ‘08
I am from Brazil, and the voting system there is very efficient. We have electronic voting which take few seconds to vote. This system is faster and safer than what we have in the USA right now. The incidence of fraud with paper voting is extremely high and this was one of the reasons the Brazilian government implanted electronic voting. USA government should search Brazil voting system for the next election for sure. If Brazil could pay for this technology, USA for sure can do it too. I actually do not understand why USA government still doing paper voting this days. Thank you,
THE WORLD IS BLACK THE WORLD IS WHITE. REMEMBER THAT YOU NAIVE HATEFULL MORONS THAT SUPPORT OBAMA.
I am here in Detroit and all the news crews are following this story. It is true. Fortunately, we have record high weather temperatures, patience and determination to make a change. This is a historic day and I believe everyone is glad to be a part of it. I hope you are voting for Obama but even if you don't, let the politicians see the record turn out. The average voter does care about this country. May God bless America!
Add a Comment?? Ok! You want a Comment? I don't think so!
The Fall of the American Empire. The fall of Democracy!
The Year when Russia used their Military-Might. To Destroy Russia, and America... The World is moving on, but not because of Barack Obama... Mor to do with failure USA. Africa 50yrs from now will be a Super-Power.. They have more resourses, than America has. They also have Europe to help them... China is your worst Enemy...
Yet you will insist in playing Politics...Barack Obama has the equivilent education has a 15 year old... But he's Black..
Bon Voyage. CNN... Your going places, the rest of the world left behind decadeds ago... I Know! My Comment have no value to a Democracy
This always happen in the heavily democratic areas and I WONDER WHY????
Barbara in NC November 4th, 2008 5:24 pm ET
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Those people know how much we need Obama and Biden. They are a hearty bunch – they'll wait in line.
We have to get rid of the hate-riddled republicans. Every ad in NC from the republicans is vile and nasty. NO MORE REPUBLICANS.
I love it I waited 7 hours to vote , but at least I voted for the party I love