Question

In the previous two presidential elections in the United States, very long wait times have been witnessed at precincts (voting stations) in some states. In Philadelphia as well, some voters complained about the long lines in some precincts, with most of the complaints coming from precinct A. In 2020, the average number of voters arriving at Precinct A was 35 per hour and the arrivals of voters was random with a coefficient of variation of 1 (CVa=1). Philadelphia deployed 1 voting machine in Precinct A. Suppose that each voter spent, on average, 1.667 minutes in the voting booth (this is the time needed to cast his/her vote using a voting machine), with a standard deviation of 2 minutes.

How long, on average, did a voter have to wait in line at precinct A in 2020 before entering a booth to cast his/her vote?

a. 58 minutes
b. 60 minutes
c. 62 minutes
d. 56 minutes
e. 71 minutes
f. There is not sufficient information to answer the question.

Answer 1

The average waiting time at precinct A in 2020 before entering a booth to cast vote is

f. There is not sufficient information to answer the question.

Step-by-step explanation:

The answers provided by 'a' to 'e' are outlandish. Secondly, to compute the average waiting time, one needs to ascertain the total time spent at the voting station by each voter. And then, this time will be subtracted from the actual voting time based on standard time to determine the waiting time.