Consolidating the Precincts was the worst idea to my knowledge that City Counsel has come up with! Not everyone has 2 plus hours to wait in line to vote. I'm sure the voter turnout would have been much higher had the precincts not have been consolidated. I am one of the voters who had his precinct consolidated and speak from PERSONAL experience when I say they need to EXPAND the precincts !

Also here's a tip for the voting commission, why can't a sample ballot(s) be placed along the walls so people can have a chance to examine them and streamline the process.
God Bless some of the older people but when I see 3 different people sit down and get back up and the same older person is still there, something is wrong! I looked on the machine and I was number 659 at 3:10PM. The precincts had been open for over 8 hours and not even 700 people had voted?? Really? Really? There were 15 voting booths and it took me maybe... maybe 5 minutes to vote. The precincts should be able to process 100 people an hour at a minimum.

I feel lucky that I was able to vote and only had to wait in line a little over an hour. I feel sorry for the people that were unable to vote because of the horrendously long inexcusable lines. City Counsel should wait in those long lines and maybe they'll change their tune when it comes time to "consolidating" more precincts!
Done!

From start to finish it took me 2hrs & 17 min to actually vote at Taft. Here is where I see the problem. When I finally managed to get to the head of the line and look in there were open station everywhere. It took so long to process people because they only had 2 spots that people sat down and wrote their address and signed. If there had been more stations those people could have had their information written down and then had it checked. We could have even done that standing in line. I had the same issue at the primary elections all though it was only 35 min then. I suggest setting up 5 to 10 desks and have one person hand out the tickets to be filled out, so they remain in order. When you are done proceed to station 2 so they may check them and hand you a ballot. The difference is who checks the ticket no one needs to sit over us and watch us write our address, they could be getting more people started.

Alas I voted and everyone was calm through the wait. I am glad that the city of Ferndale realizes it was an issue!

Once I got in the FHS library, or the voting zone, I was shocked that less than half of the room was utilized. If there were two check in tables instead of one it would have cut the time considerably. Two at a check in table and two processing ballots was ridiculous.

Thank you for your comments. Your input tells us what's working and what's not. I encourage voters to send me their input, either here or via email: ctallman@ferndale-mi.com or by phone: 248-546-2381.

I agree with Rachel and Carey. While FHS DID have the ballots taped along the walls outside the voting area, and DID have a great precinct manager out there explaining the ballot in shifts, the library was far too crowded with far too few desks to vote at. It's a desk with a cardboard privacy shield. It would not have been so hard to add more desks it seems.

I got to UHS around 7:30 am, I didn't get to vote until slightly after 9, the line was wrapping around two hallways. We need to fix this.

I voted at UHS and it took just over 2hrs. The check in process was slow, but the real issue seemed to be the electronic ballot box. I stood in line for another 20 minutes or so after I had filled out my ballot because so many others were struggling to feed their ballots in. I'm assuming it's some sort of regulation that workers can't help voters with the machines, but is it possible to have more than one at each location to speed things up?

How does one volunteer to become an election worker? That seems to be problem #1. I'd be happy to volunteer, but it doesn't cross my mind until I'm standing in line on election day, saying to myself "why are there ever only 3 people doing this???". Maybe a month of so prior to an election, a flyer that went out advertising the need for more election workers, how to sign up and the process involved would help to recruit more election workers and ultimately lesson the amount of time spent in line for all the voters.

Instead of trying to fix the problem with more people, more, equipment, more places...more more more...why don't voters push our elected officials to support "No Reason" Absentee voting -- OR -- Early Voting.

I'm with Greg! There's no reason that here in the 21st century with all this technology, that some sort of better system couldn't be invented to replace this archaic "voting in person" system. From the time I walked into FHS and joined the line, to the time I exited the media center polling area, was 1 hour, 49 minutes.

Suggestions:
1. Let people sign up to be election worker for half-day shift. (this was done in the past).
2. Use city employees if you must, especially off-duty city employees.
3. Make contacts with all the churches in the city, solicit volunteers there.
4. Network with other city clerks, snag their excess volunteers if any.

Sorry, not having enough election workers is a known problem and this lands at the feet of the city clerk. If the city clerk can't fix it, then find someone who can. Or, task another city employee in city hall with the job of securing enough election workers. Excuses and poor customer service don't cut it in private sector, and shouldn't be accepted in government either.

I for one actually had a nice time voting. Yeah, it was a long wait 2 hours and 10 minutes at Taft. BUT, it was good to interact with community neighbors. Everyone in our "neck of the line" were in good moods. The good humors within those hallways definitely made it more tolerable. It made me proud to be a Ferndalian!

@Ferndale_1986, if you think you have all the answers then you should be the first in line to sign up as an election worker. To sit back and find everything wrong while doing nothing just creates more problems.

I am appreciative of election workers, especially the seniors citizens who are the majority doing the job. While there is always room for improvement, the long lines were due to a ballot heavy on state and local proposals plus many undecided voters who were not prepared on how to cast their votes. Therefore, having ten or twenty voter privacy boxes does not guarantee a faster outcome as one might assume. As for the precinct downsizing, this was required by the state due to redistricting and not the fault of any local city official or the city clerk. The voter must take "personal responsibility". The election process is a civic duty, not Starbucks.