I cast my absentee ballot for the 2008 US Presidential election Saturday after waiting in line at the Woodbridge DMV location for four and a half hours. I was expecting a 2-3 hour wait, saw some questionable electioneering in the long lines extending around the building, and was appalled to discover only one of the four electronic voting machines were being used at a time.

I parked and got in line at 12:30 yesterday afternoon. The parking lot was already overflowing, cars parked along the side of the road, the line of voters looped back and forth around the entire side of the building. Volunteers handed out absentee application forms to the people joining the end of the line. Filling out the form took up all of two minutes. People yelled and honked from cars passing by. After one hour i was back on the side of the building where i had started, but one loop closer.

There was some questionable campaigning around the polling location by volunteers passing out leftover Halloween candy and bottles of water “courtesy of the Obama campaign.” Supposedly, there is supposed to be a 100ft campaign-free neutral zone around polling places, where campaigning is not allowed. These volunteers canvassed the line extending into the parking lot and all the way up to the front door.

The sky was clear, so standing out in the sun for hours became hot and exhausting. There was no shade in the loop of the line on the side of the building. Many anticipated the long lines and brought fold-up chairs and magazines; some called friends to deliver food while they were stuck in line; the children around me managed to entertain themselves with hide and seek.

4 PM. After 3 and a half hours there was a small sense of victory: finally getting inside the building. But it was quickly dashed seeing another line wrapping around the inside of the DMV waiting area. We were shepherded into the building in metered groups — presumably to stay within the building’s 120 maximum occupancy. Each group was seated into a row of the DMV’s waiting chairs, while a volunteer checked that our absentee applications were completed correctly. One more hour around the room.

5:05 PM. You’d think i would have had that oasis-in-the-desert sense of relief when i finally reached the voting room. But i didn’t. I was appalled to see four empty voting machines. Hundreds of people have been waiting in line the entire afternoon to press three buttons (which takes all of 30 seconds), and the machines were not even being used. For some reason there was a bottleneck with the ladies checking the applications online before you’re approved to vote. After standing on deck for a minute, i was called to a desk with my application and driver’s license. My ID check took a minute then i was sent to one of the electronic voting machines. I was the only person using any of the four machines for a three minute period. Do the math.

I spoke with a few other people that voted earlier Saturday morning and on Thursday at the Woodbridge location, and they said the voting machines were all being used. Maybe i just came in at the wrong time, but slack like that cannot be allowed when there are a thousand people waiting in line. Regular voting on Tuesday may be less congested, as the burden will be spread throughout all local districts and there won’t be absentee applications to verify. The DMV on Saturday was slammed with the majority of Prince William County’s last-minute in-person absentee voters. The poll officially closed at 5 PM, but the line still tailed around the side of the building as i left the parking lot at 5:15.

Check out more photos and video on my Flickr set from when i was in line to vote. And please go vote on Tuesday.