Hours-long waits greeted voters at numerous vote centers across Los Angeles County Tuesday evening, but elections officials insisted anyone who was in line by 8 p.m. will be allowed to cast a ballot.
That assurance was not good enough for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign, who filed papers in federal court asking that polls remain open until 10 p.m., allowing anyone in line by 10 p.m. to vote.
The Sanders campaign argued in the court papers that there have been “extreme wait times” at various polling locations, “including wait times up to four hours to cast a ballot.” The campaign contends that a failure to keep the vote centers open for an extra two hours would “immediately and irreparably” harm county voters’ “right to participate in our democracy.”
A representative for the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office told City News Service there was no immediate comment in response to the Sanders campaign’s lawsuit, but reiterated that anyone who was in line by 8 p.m. will be permitted to vote, no matter how long it takes.
Tuesday’s election is the county’s first exclusive use of a Voting Solutions for All People system of casting ballots, relying on electronic touch-screen voting at nearly 1,000 vote centers.
The Sanders campaign argued that some polling places had multiple voting machines fail, exacerbating the wait times.
Some voters told reporters at various polling places that they had waited as long as 90 minutes to two hours to cast a ballot. Long lines were still seen at some polling places even as the 8 p.m. closing time passed.