Trussville voter talks about long lines and solutions

TRUSSVILLE, Ala. (WBRC) - It was an amazing display of civic duty as some Alabama voters waited in lines for hours to vote.

With hundreds of voters waiting in those long lines, you might think some of them would get angry. But there was no violence - just people who did their duty as citizens.

Now they are hoping they won’t have to face those lines in the future.

“I’ve seen long lines or what I thought were long lines before, but nothing at all prepared me for this,” Ninfa Austin said.

Austin, a registered nurse was shocked to see those long lines at Trussville City Hall. She arrived at 10:40 a.m. She voted at 2:15 p.m.

“It was a beautiful day. Thankful for that and the camaraderie was very nice around me. We had a lot of conversation. Joking. I really appreciated a nearby restaurant offering free water,” Austin said.

A local gym also allowed voters to use their restrooms.

Austin believes election officials can take some steps to reduce lines in the next big election.

“They need to consider a larger facility. Or maybe redistribute the names of Trussville residents to vote in different places,” Austin said.

Still, despite the almost four hour wait, Austin has no regrets. “Civic duty. It’s my honor to have vote and to cast my vote. I would have stood in line until 7 p.m. if that is what it would have taken,” Austin said.

At Trussville, there are 6,700 assigned to the city hall precinct. Normally, the polling sites get only one poll pad for every 1,000 to 1,500 voters.

Jefferson County’s probate judge said more poll pads would have helped. He believes they had enough staffing for each site.

The next big election we have will be statewide races for governor, the legislature, and other state offices in 2022. And of course, the next presidential race will be four years from now.

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