City Clerk's Office

If there are 30 voters in line ahead of you, plan to wait in line for at least 32 minutes next year.

The Madison City Clerk's Office simulated an election on Tuesday, October 11, to determine exactly how much extra time voters will need to spend in line at the polls when the new voting laws are fully implemented in 2012.

One hundred fifty-four voters and nine Election Officials participated in the three-hour mock election. Fifteen of the voters cast provisional ballots.

With two Election Officials at the poll book (the traditional polling place set-up), the wait in line was 4 minutes times the number of voters in line. Adding a third Election Official to check IDs at the poll book table reduced the wait in line to 1 minute, 18 seconds times the number of voters in line.

Splitting the poll books into A-L and M-Z reduced the wait in line to 1 minute, 6 seconds times the number of voters in line. Checking the ID at the door with a list of everyone on the poll book reduced the wait in line to 1 minute, 5 seconds times the number of voters in line.

Casting a provisional ballot took an average of 5 minutes after the voter had reached the poll book.

Voters spent an average of 1 minute, 16 seconds at the poll book with the traditional polling place set up. When there were 3 Election Officials at the poll book table, voters spent an average of 1 minute, 9 seconds at the poll book.

Prompting voters to pull out their ID cards while in line and stationing 3 Election Officials at the poll book table reduced the amount of time spent at the poll book to 1 minute, 2 seconds per voter.

When the poll book was split into A-L and M-Z, voters spent an average of 46 seconds at the poll book. Checking the ID at the door using a list of voters on the poll book reduced the amount of time spent at the poll book to an average of 38 seconds.

Tuesday's mock election did not include any voter registration. The Madison City Clerk's Office plans to hold another mock election this fall to include voter registration, with UW-Madison students as the voters.