Local

Long ballot blamed for long voting lines in Fla.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Another major problem that needed to be addressed Wednesday was some of the incredibly long lines at Central Florida polling places.

It was so bad President Barack Obama even mentioned it in his acceptance speech Tuesday night.

With three to four-hour wait times in parts of Orange and Osceola counties, some voters said they gave up.

One of the most common complaints was the longer three-page ballot.

"It was 8½ by 17, both sides! It took a while for people to vote it," said Amber Smith, a spokeswoman for the Osceola County supervisor of elections.

Once they were inserted into the election machine, they quickly filled up ballot bins, and only 30 technicians spread out across Orange County had access to switch them out.

At one precinct in Kissimmee, where the wait averaged three hours, election workers said hundreds of people showed up with a change of address request, a process that slowed everyone down.

In Orange County, election workers said it's not uncommon for technical glitches to hold things up.

"We had one voter who tried to put all three ballots in at the same time, so you had situations where we had jams," said Orange County Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles.

And even though they had months to plan, election organizers admit some things could have been done differently. "I believe we had enough workers. It may be that we didn't have them in the right spot based on where we saw the lines," he said.

Cowles said workers are already looking at ways to improve future elections.