Originally Posted by
AlTheKiller
I have ridden the past few years. I've never had to wait in line either, is that more common in big cities?
A few journalists have looked into this issue, including Greg Palast of the BBC. It appears that there is a definite correlation between the density of minority voters, who tend to vote Democratic, and a shortage of voting machines. There have also been documented programming issues in Florida, where majority-minority precincts' machines are set to accept ballots that have over-votes, which they then don't count, while majority-white precincts have the machines set to spit the ballot back at the voter to make them aware of their mistake.
These are just a few incomplete looks at the situation, so it can't be confused with complete data. However, it does fit with the fact that one party in America desires low participation rates while the other prefers high levels of voter participation.