# Fox: 102 year old woman had to wait in line 3 hours to vote, "What's the big deal?" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 15, 2013, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380 "2013-02-15T14:15:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380/81 "2013-02-15T18:33:09Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > It might help if you bat your eyelashes when you say that. Maybe a little pout too. That also seems to be an ad hominem attack that doesn’t address any of the points I made. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380/82 "2013-02-15T18:34:21Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > You’re a reprehensible partisan bitch. This is hilarious coming from you. You and Bricker should get along just fine. It’s funny watching the leftie tards get all tarded up and foaming at the mouth for funnsies. Damn those righties making voting lines really long just to fuck with minorities and democrats. Good thing they have seperate lines for “white republicans” and “everyone else” or else some poor white republican might not have been able to vote. And that would have been a tragedy. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380/83 "2013-02-15T18:34:23Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I volunteered with my county election supervisor this past election. The application forms, which are available from individual county election supervisors, do not require the applicant to identify any reason for the request. You’re not responding to my question. The.website says nothing like that. And the point is, the state website won’t say that as long as the point is to cut down on voting, especially among certain groups of voters. It does no good to make it more difficult to vote if you also tell people how they can work around your obstacles. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380/84 "2013-02-15T18:35:44Z")
> [@redtail23](#): > > I was perfectly satisfied with my wait, thank you. > > Perhaps we could start by agreeing that deliberate interference with the election process by reducing previously available voting hours in transparent efforts to disenfranchise certain voters should be condemned. > > Can you get behind that? Yes. But from that, it doesn’t follow that I agree any rollback of previously available voting hours is to be condemned. A rollback that arises from funding issues, for example, should not be somehow prohibited. Voting hours or voting days are not a “one-way rachet,” able only to be increased. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380/85 "2013-02-15T18:38:03Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > This is hilarious coming from you. You and Bricker should get along just fine. > > It’s funny watching the leftie tards get all tarded up and foaming at the mouth for funnsies. Damn those righties making voting lines really long just to fuck with minorities and democrats. Good thing they have seperate lines for “white republicans” and “everyone else” or else some poor white republican might not have been able to vote. And that would have been a tragedy. In fairness to the argument as I understand it, the position is that reducing voter turnout hurts Democrats more than it does Republicans. I don’t know that I agree, but it’s part of the set of assumptions being argued on that side, so the point you raise does not expose a contradiction in their claims. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380/86 "2013-02-15T18:39:58Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > You’re not responding to my question. The.website says nothing like that. > > And the point is, the state website won’t say that as long as the point is to cut down on voting, especially among certain groups of voters. It does no good to make it more difficult to vote if you also tell people how they can work around your obstacles. In order to obtain an absentee ballot, you go to the county, so it doesn’t really matter what the state website says. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380/87 "2013-02-15T18:46:46Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > In order to obtain an absentee ballot, you go to the county, so it doesn’t really matter what the state website says. If the first thing I read on the state website says that absentee ballots are for people who cannot get to a polling place, and I can get to a polling place, why would I bother checking with my county? Why would I check anywhere else at all? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380/88 "2013-02-15T18:54:34Z")
Because you’d scroll further down the page to see if there were any eligibility requirements listed, and quickly conclude that there weren’t any? Beyond that, I somehow doubt that a 102-year-old lady checked the state’s _website_ in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380/89 "2013-02-15T18:55:37Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > In [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=682285), **BrainGlutton** posted a screed accusing Sheriff Arpaio of hiring a known, convicted sex offender for the school protection “posse.” > > I refuted that claim, showing that the individual was a seven-year employee of the sheriff’s department, fired in 2009 shortly after being arrested for a sex offense. > > That was factual: the claim about Arpaio was wrong – in fact, another poster contacted the original story author and the story has since been corrected. And what influential position does **BG** have in the Democratic Party or in the liberal commentariat, such as it is? This is what Kevin Drum calls ‘nutpicking.’ You can always find someone in blog comments or on a message board who you can point to and say, “the other side is like _this_.” The fact that you’re talking about someone on _this_ message board doesn’t change the truth of that. (For all I know, **BG** may well have been justified in the context of that thread. I’ll let him defend himself; I’m not gonna go there. But even if **BG** went totally Godwin on **Bricker** there, it makes no difference in this thread.) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380/90 "2013-02-15T18:57:02Z")
> [@bup](#): > > I mean, tons of inner-city predominantly minority people have to wait several hours to vote because they don’t get the same number of workers and number of voting machines per capita 😕 Why? And how is that acceptable? > [@MsWhatsit](#): > > A three-hour line to vote is unacceptable, regardless of the age or race of the voter. Age, race, and anything else you care to name. > [@Sinaptics](#): > > Okay, some more details on Desiline Victor: [http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/02/12/meet-desiline-victor-the-102-year-old-voter-attending-the-sotu/](http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/02/12/meet-desiline-victor-the-102-year-old-voter-attending-the-sotu/) > > It seems she just became a citizen in 2005, so I doubt she was around for the 1950’s. Even if she was, I think saying that she MUST vote in person because she fears for her vote is a bit of a stretch. Might as well say that she might be scared of mail and that’s why she didn’t vote absentee. It’s pure speculation. She was born in Haiti, so she doesn’t take democracy for granted, just the opposite. I know many people who were born in non-democratic countries to whom voting absentee just doesn’t feel as “real” as voting in person on election day. Heck,\* I \*couldn’t wait to be 18 and be able to exercise that right which women had gotten when my age was already in double figures - and not by mail! ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380/91 "2013-02-15T19:01:13Z")
> [@Sinaptics](#): > > Okay, some more details on Desiline Victor: [http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/02/12/meet-desiline-victor-the-102-year-old-voter-attending-the-sotu/](http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/02/12/meet-desiline-victor-the-102-year-old-voter-attending-the-sotu/) > > It seems she just became a citizen in 2005, so I doubt she was around for the 1950’s. > … > That said, it’s unconscionable that a 102 yo woman had to wait 3 hours to vote. WTF other people in line. Can’t let the super old lady go in front of you? Nobody running the show that could move her to the front of the line? > [@Rachellelogram](#): > > Yeesh. How about simple courtesy? Anyone who’s at least 100 years old should get to bypass the line, no matter how long it is. Really, I feel that anyone with an observable physical handicap (like being a hundred fucking years old) should get a “by” when it comes to standing in long lines. You two are missing the point. This is not about Desiline Victor. Her experience was not the problem, just an emblem. Moving her to the front of the line would have made _her_ evening easier, but would not have addressed the actual problem one bit. Even if every very-elderly or disabled voter everywhere was immediately moved to the front of the line, the problem remains the same. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380/92 "2013-02-15T19:03:42Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > We both have mail boxes You don’t really know that do you? Neither do I. Nor do I know if mail service in her area is unreliable or if someone’s been stealing mail out of boxes in that area. You don’t have to stop assuming her life is like yours, but you will be more sympathetic and understandable if you do. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380/93 "2013-02-15T19:06:35Z")
It honestly doesn’t matter whether or not absentee ballots are available. If a means of voting has been provided, then it is the duty of election officials to make sure that it is administered competently and effectively. That means no three-hour lines. As a citizen, you should not have to be responsible for determining which method of voting is most likely to get massively fucked up and fail to work. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380/94 "2013-02-15T19:07:16Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Damn those righties making voting lines really long just to fuck with minorities and democrats. Good thing they have seperate lines for “white republicans” and “everyone else” or else some poor white republican might not have been able to vote. And that would have been a tragedy. It may astound you to know that geography is a good indicator of how people are likely to vote, with inner cities going heavily Democratic, for instance, and rural areas going heavily Republican. So in terms of affecting election outcomes, we do pretty much have white Republican lines and minority Democratic lines. Now if, for instance, the only allowable polling places were at one’s city hall or county courthouse, that would mess with (largely Republican) rural voters, because they’d have to travel a lot further to vote. It’s amazing what you can do to put more hurdles in the way of on one group or another with superficially impartial rules. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380/95 "2013-02-15T19:13:51Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > > [@bup](#): > > > > I mean, tons of inner-city predominantly minority people have to wait several hours to vote because they don’t get the same number of workers and number of voting machines per capita > > 😕 Why? And how is that acceptable? Because they’re inner-city, predominantly minority people. Can I get a “hell yes!”? ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380/96 "2013-02-15T19:15:28Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > The problem here is that FOX misrepresented that she was being pesented as a vicitim during the State of the Union. She wasn’t. She was held up as a hero for standing her ground against a deliberate and politically motivated effort to make voting more difficult in the state of Florida than is reasonably necessary. A State that allows absentee voting for the sake of convenience, and has 8 days of early voting is making things more difficult than reasonably necessary? What do you want them to do, provide limo service to and from the polls? ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380/97 "2013-02-15T19:19:53Z")
Yeah, I propose a system where there’s only one voting precinct available per state in the poorest, most minoritiest part of the biggest city in the state, and have it open for only one voting day. If you can’t make it there to vote, tough. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380/98 "2013-02-15T19:22:46Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > A State that allows absentee voting for the sake of convenience, and has 8 days of early voting is making things more difficult than reasonably necessary? What do you want them to do, provide limo service to and from the polls? I want them to make sure that nobody has to wait more than an hour in order to vote in person at the polls. I don’t think this is unreasonable, and it is certainly not equivalent to demanding limo service, free child care, hors d’oeuvres in line, or any of the other ridiculously over-the-top things it has been compared to. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380/99 "2013-02-15T19:28:30Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > A State that allows absentee voting for the sake of convenience, and has 8 days of early voting is making things more difficult than reasonably necessary? What do you want them to do, provide limo service to and from the polls? It really isn’t theoretical is it? Under the conditions that existed, the wait times were what they were. Is that acceptable or not? ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380/100 "2013-02-15T19:34:47Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > A State that allows absentee voting for the sake of convenience, and has 8 days of early voting is making things more difficult than reasonably necessary? What do you want them to do, provide limo service to and from the polls? No, it’s more like respect equal protection under the law. If some precincts make it so same-day voting lines have plenty of ballots and workers and machines, and others don’t, that’s a problem. I can understand why you think people in this thread are complaining about lack of limo rides, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-102-year-old-woman-had-to-wait-in-line-3-hours-to-vote-whats-the-big-deal/650380.md?page=6)