Germany has 73,000 locations for 61,690,000 voters. Germany has roughly 4x the number of locations per voter.
Germany has 73,000 locations for 61,690,000 voters. Germany has roughly 4x the number of locations per voter.
I once timed voters, data gathering in the debate between paper ballots vs touchscreens. From signing the poll book to dropping ballot in the box. Avg 21 minutes, for both paper and electronic (no significant difference). For a moderately sized general election ballot (~40 issues and races).
Election administrators absolutely know these timings, how to properly do capacity planning. Whether they admit it or not.
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In my jurisdiction, dropping off a ballot is trivial. It's just a box. Drive or walk up. Open safety door. Drop the ballot.
I read that Texas requires proper identification to drop off ballots. And prohibits 3rd party help, eg wife cannot deliver husband's ballot. (I can't imagine any scenario where that extraneous step is merited.) So factor in the actual time & motion data per jursidiction. Because as we know, every jurisdiction insists on doing their own thing, independent of all other considerations.
For comparison, here are the numbers in Canada for 2019 [0]:
Registered electors: 27,300,000
Polling places: 20,000
Thus, the ratio is 1365 ppl per polling place.
This is only 60% of the ratio in Germany. I am from Canada and I don't think we have any problems with voer supression.
[0] https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=med&dir=bkg&do...