The fact that voting lines were disgraceful in many parts of the country is not new, but there’s a growing body of evidence that some Americans wait much longer than others. Taegan Goddard at Political Wire had this item yesterday.
A new paper from MIT professor Charles Stewart finds that African Americans waited an average of 23 minutes to vote in the last presidential election, Hispanics waited 19 minutes and whites waited just 12 minutes.
“While there are other individual-level demographic difference present in the responses, none stands out as much as race. For instance, the average wait time among those with household incomes less than $30,000 was 12 minutes, compared to 14 minutes for those in households with incomes greater than $100,000. Strong Democrats waited an average of 16 minutes, compared to an average of 11 minutes for strong Republicans. Respondents who reported they had an interest in news and public affairs ‘most of the time’ waited an average of 13.2 minutes, compared to 12.8 minutes among those who had ‘hardly any’ interest.”
Charles Stewart’s findings are online here. They help bolster some preliminary findings that my colleague Laura Conaway highlighted in February.
In the larger context, there are a few things to keep in mind.









