Wait times at the South Side polls

The average wait time at the Banana Factory was over five hours as of 8 p.m. today, with voters — many Lehigh students — in line extending for blocks.

At 7 a.m. today, volunteers prepared to hand out water and food to the thousands of voters expected to gather outside the South Side’s five polling locations for the 2024 general election. 

Broughal Middle School, the Banana Factory, Cathedral Church of Nativity, St. John’s Windish Lutheran Church and Donegan Elementary School adapted to the various needs of the communities voting at each location throughout the day based on wait times. 

The longest line wait time was at the Banana Factory, which experienced a machine outage shortly after opening, with an average wait time of 143 minutes by 9. a.m. The wait time peaked at six hours at 11 a.m. The location had only two functioning machines for most of the morning until two additional machines arrived around noon. The last voter didn’t get in a booth to cast his vote until 9:31 p.m.

Justin Garbowitz, ‘27, arrived at the Banana Factory at 9:55 a.m., and initially anticipated an hour wait at most. 

“By the time I vote, it’ll most likely be over five hours making it a pretty long day,” Garbowitz. said. “I’m almost at the front of the line now, though, so it’s worth it.”

Garbowitz said because he has an exam on Thursday, he felt fortunate to have the rest of the day to study after he voted at 3:30 p.m. However, students who voted later in the day could be more overwhelmed with school work due to long wait times.

Broughal Middle School had an average wait time of 26 minutes upon opening but peaked at 112 minutes by 10 a.m. A poll volunteer said an additional polling machine was brought in to accommodate the high volume of voters this year. By noon, the average wait time was 89 minutes. At 7 p.m., the wait time was about 25 minutes. 

Cathedral Church of Nativity had an average wait time of 86 minutes upon opening and received an additional voting machine in the early morning. The average wait time by noon was 80 minutes, which dropped to a no-wait line from 4 p.m. on. 

Jeffrey DeAngelis, a South Bethlehem resident for 18 years, expressed frustration over the long wait time at the Church of Nativity. 

“Two hours and 20 minutes for a general election is way too long,” DeAngelis said. 

DeAngelis has been voting at the church for many years, and said there has always been more than one voting machine. However, this year he was notified that one of the machines went down earlier in the day which contributed to the longer wait times.

He said that he has not experienced election wait times like this in a while.

Donegan Elementary School had a 52-minute wait time after opening but averaged about 29 minutes by noon. At 1:30 p.m. the average wait was about 7 minutes. By 5 p.m., the average wait time was about 30 minutes. 

Andrea Moya, a first-time voter and resident of South Bethlehem, said her experience at Donegan Elementary School was positive. 

“The other lines were pretty long, so I was kind of worried coming here,” Moya said. “But it seems like this line moved very quickly.”

St. Johns Windish Lutheran Church had maintained the quickest morning turnaround time for voters, with an average wait of 25 minutes from 8 a.m. to noon. The highest recorded turnout was at 7 p.m., with a 50-minute average wait time following a late afternoon surge. 

David Morris, a South Bethlehem resident, has been voting at the St. John’s Windish Lutheran Church for many years, and waited only five minutes in line for this election to cast his vote.

Morris explained he was part of the 4th Ward, and those voters could walk right in, as there was no line. However, the longer line was for the 5th Ward, which serves a different area of Bethlehem. 

“Last time I voted, it was much longer for my ward,” Morris said.