INDIANAPOLIS — Early voting is officially over. Odds are if you early voted, you likely waited in line.
If you are voting on election day, there is a way to find out how long those wait times will be and you can let other people know.
The website Indywaittimes.org can tell you how long the wait will be at each voting location across Marion County.
"If you have to arrange for childcare, transportation or time off of work, knowing how long it's going to take to vote is a really important part of that plan,” Roger Deetz, the Founder and CEO of IN Tech for Progress, said. “So first and foremost, we want to make the information available."
IN Tech for Progress is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that was founded in 2020. They started tracking how long people were waiting to vote crowdsourcing wait times.
The Marion County Clerk’s Office says wait times have been longer this election cycle, which has led to people opting out of early voting.
"People were trying to vote on their lunch hour and realized it's not going to happen,” Dan Goldblatt, a spokesman for the Marion County Clerk’s Office, said. “At one point, we were at more than a two-and-a-half hour wait time at the city-county building. Logistically, it just wasn't possible, so if anybody wanted to vote early and couldn't come out tomorrow."
IN Tech for Progress doesn’t want people to turn away from the polls because wait times are too long. They hope everyone who shows up to vote can get through the line in time. That's why they are asking people to check in on their website and answer how many people are in front and behind them. The more people that participate the better their data points will be.
"Once you have cast your vote, there is a final button which is 'I voted' and then that will have the pre-filled time for that. That is all the data points we need,” Deetz said.
IN Tech for Progress was tracking wait times during early voting in several counties across the state. On election day, they will be tracking estimated wait times in Marion, Vigo, and Boone counties.
The Marion County Clerk’s office says lines are shortest late in the morning and mid-afternoon
“10 in the morning, or three o'clock in the afternoon, those are the times we see the least amount of lines and the least amount of people,” Goldblatt said. “So, if you can come during those times that's when you are going to be able to get in and out the quickest."
IN Tech for Progress says that 40,000 people visited their site this election season and 5,000 people check-ins to crowdsource wait times.
Their goal is to eventually expand their service to the whole state in future elections. Along with that, they hope the wait times they collect can eventually help influence public policy to make voting more accessible.
To track and crowd-source wait times in Marion County click here.To learn more about IN Tech for Progress, click here.
