Prince William Co. considering changes to shorten voting lines

Prince William County elections officials agree with President Barack Obama: voting lines are too long. During his victory speech Tuesday night, the president thanked voters who waited hours to cast their ballots and promised: "We have to fix that."

Some Prince William County residents had waited as long as four hours after the polls closed to vote. County Electoral Board members have already met to see how to improve that.

Vice Chairman Rick Hendrix says because the county has grown so much in recent years, the board has already increased the number of precincts, so there are fewer voters per precinct.

Now they are looking at Prince William's voting machines. They need more of them, and they are considering switching from the touch screen machines in place now to optical scans being used in some other jurisdictions.

Whatever else they opt to do, they are hoping its all in place long before the next presidential election.