Readers: Only Half Required Voting Machines at Polls

For the past week, the stories of long lines and broken voting machines have circulated throughout Richland County and the Midlands.

But thanks to help from more than 50 Patch readers in Richland County, we have put together the most comprehensive collection of Election Day experiences.

Patch has been waiting for Richland County officials (from the elections board and the public information office) to provide exact counts of voting machines stationed at each precinct since last Tuesday. No response has been provided.

But .

Here are the other "low" lights:

• Readers said the 37 precincts they visited were equipped with just half of the voting machines they should have been (169 of 316, or 53 percent)
• The average wait time was more than three hours.
• More than 90 percent of readers stuck with it, and voted despite the wait.
• On average, more than 11 percent of the machines that were at the precincts were not working properly.

Unlike some concerns raised by those against the 1-cent transportation sales tax referendum that passed, there doesn't seem to be a correlation between the precincts that went against the tax and those that were poorly equipped for the voting.

There is still time for you to share your experience by answering a few simple questions here.

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