“”In Miami-Dade County, the ballot read like the book of Leviticus – though not as interesting.”

–Florida state senate president Don Gaetz, opining on the long lines in Florida’s 2012 election. From the same article:

University of Florida Political Science Professor Dan Smith, whose expertise is in the conduct of elections, believes the lines weren’t caused by the length of the ballot – noting that even in Miami-Dade County with its biblical tome, there were major differences in lines, with people in some precincts waiting several hours and those in others getting in and out quickly.

Longer ballots probably do slow voters down some, Smith said.

“But the bottlenecks were processing people through … part of it was all the provisional ballots that were pulling people off” the line, Smith said.

Smith argues that part of the 2011 election law overhaul that required some people who had moved to a new county to vote on a provisional ballot – which can take longer – was more of a culprit than the length of the ballot.