SAN ANGELO, Texas - We hear it election after election — long lines for voting, people waiting four, six, eight hours to cast their ballots.
It's baffling. Obviously it's hard to understand why election officials and legislators allow the problem to persist.
Most curious, though, is why citizens stand for it. Where is the outrage? How can people endure that and not raise voices loud enough to be heard in state capitals?
If that were to happen in San Angelo, this newspaper would demand that the Tom Green County Commissioners Court make changes to ensure it never happened again. And our voice probably wouldn't be heard over the din of angry residents.
And if a solution required action from Austin, legislators and the governor would hear about it.
What's needed? More polling places? More equipment? More poll workers? Spend the money and get them.
Florida's Election Day woes were especially egregious because that state curtailed early voting, which exacerbated the Nov. 6 voting problem.
Washington probably doesn't have answers. Congress passed the Help America Vote Act after the 2000 debacle, and still the problems continue.
It would be good, though, to have a national discussion about changing the voting day to Sunday. Tuesday voting must have made sense 200 years ago, but does it still? It's the one change most likely to increase voter turnout.
Even with that, though, long lines would be unacceptable. Voting is a right, and exercising that right shouldn't cause an undue hardship — and it certainly shouldn't be imposed because elected leaders and administrators didn't plan well enough or invest enough money.
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