Prospect managing editor Emily Parsons writes in:
I just stood in line for two and a half hours to vote at the Bell Multicultural High School in Columbia Heights. Yes, the line was crazy long, but I went at prime time, about 8:30 AM. What really struck me was that at 10:45, the length of the line had remained absolutely static—it's going to be a long day. The primary had been at a small library down the street, and lines hadn't been long in the morning. There had been two lines, A-M and N-Z, and about a dozen voting “booths”, small work tables. Clearly, they had prepared for more people this go, as there were more than a half dozen different lines (very few people seem to have names falling between Q and Z) and twice the number of spots to fill out the ballots. The line moved steadily; it was just a slog. Plus, we had to go through a metal detector—not sure if that was just because it was in a school or what. The crowd was calm, and its racial and age diversity reflected the neighborhood. A lot of the volunteers were high school students: both working for various campaigns, passing out lit to the line, and inside directing the flow. One girl wore a t-shirt that said “The Future of Democracy” with an arrow pointing up at her. Most of my voting experience has been in NY where you vote in an actual booth, with a curtain closed behind you, ticking metal switches and cranking a big, heavy lever. I'll never get used to the lack of privacy in DC. You mark in pencil on paper and hand it to a poll worker who pushes it into a super-retro-looking scanner. The poll worker and the person handing out the “I voted” stickers and anyone in line nearby all take a long, unapologetic look.
