The right to vote (and not to wait).

In the previous two presidential elections in the United States, very long wait times have been witnessed at precincts (voting stations) in states that ultimately decided the election (Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004).

In Philadelphia as well, some voters complained about the long lines in some precincts, with most complaints coming from precinct A. In 2004, the average number of voters arriving at Precinct A was of 35 per hour and the arrivals of voters was random with inter-arrival times that had a coefficient of variation of 1 (CVa=1).

Philadelphia had deployed 1 voting machine in Precinct A. Suppose that each voter spent on average 100 seconds in the voting booth (this is the time needed to cast her/his vote using a voting machine), with a standard deviation of 240 seconds.

Given the long wait time (longer than one hour) for Precinct A, the city of Philadelphia is thinking of alternative solutions to improve voting conditions. One of the proposed solutions is as follows.

Proposal 1: Deploy an additional voting machine in precinct A.

Assume that the voter turnout is expected to have similar characteristics in 2008 as in the previous election.

Under Proposal 1, how long on average would a voter have to wait in line in precinct A in 2008 before casting her/his vote.

A) 1 minute

B) 5 minutes

C) 6 minutes

D) 10 minutes

E) There is not sufficient information to answer the question