Two years ago, the Election Day holdup at some polling places didn’t come from the people who checked your registration or the optical scanners that read your ballot.

It was the lack of privacy booths to mark those ballots.

Now, with voters in some communities again facing two- or three-sheet ballots and a huge turnout expected for a contentious presidential election, officials at the state Board of Elections say a dearth of privacy booths should not be a problem tomorrow.

The state has purchased an additional 500 units since the 2006 election. In all, 4,065 are being spread among the 581 polling places in Rhode Island.

There’s no detailed formula for distributing the booths. State law says there must be at least one booth for every 175 active voters, according to Robert B. Rapoza, director of elections. The minimum number of booths per polling place is two.

The state didn’t have enough last year.

For example, in Cranston precinct 722, there were four booths for 792 registered voters — one per 190 people. Across the Bay, at the polling place in Tiverton Town Hall, the number of booths per voter was about the same.

In Cranston, some voters had to wait, often with ballots in hand, because city voters had to mark three sheets. Tiverton’s ballot consisted of just one sheet.

“I think we may have learned a lesson from that,” said Robert Kando, executive director of the Board of Elections.

So this year in Barrington, for example, the town is getting 78 privacy booths — 1 per 160 or so voters. Two years ago it had only 18, according to Town Clerk Lorraine Derois.

Things could still be slow in some cities and towns.

Voters in communities such as Newport, Middletown and Warren will face at least two dozen referenda. In Smithfield, there will be 33 questions on the ballot.

“It’s the referendum questions that slow things down,” Kando said.

Under state law, voters can spend up to 10 minutes in the booth reading and marking their ballots.

Rapoza said the board is trying to be sensitive to the number of ballot questions in each community, and to allocate extra booths accordingly.

Technically, if there are tables available in the polling place inside the voting area, voters aren’t supposed to use them. Ballots are supposed to be filled in only in the privacy booths.

“I don’t condone it, but I heard that some places where there were tables, voters marked the ballots at the tables,” said Kando.

Adding extra booths is just one of the things state and local officials have done to speed things along in this election.

Many communities with lots of local referenda have sent out information hoping voters will write down their choices before coming to their polling place.

“We’ve got backup clerks and moderators and supervisors, and we’re trying to get greeters. We’re hoping it will keep the line going.” said Nancy Mello, Tiverton town clerk.

“We’ve put on a lot of people,” said Cranston Registrar Jaclyn Caruolo.

In Warren, with five polling places and 8,000 registered voters, Town Clerk Julie Coelho said she believes the town is getting extra privacy booths because voters there will have four pages of candidates and questions printed on two sheets.

“And we have hired a lot more poll workers to keep the lines moving and not let it back up,” Coelho said. Their extra workers will also include greeters to make sure people find the correct line. Workers will also have special pads to show new voters how to mark their ballots correctly.

(People can check their registration status and find out where to vote by going to the state’s Voter Information Center at www.sec.state.ri.us/vic.)

“In other states, they have a two- or three-hour wait. I don’t see that happening here,” said Coelho, who hopes the town will be over-prepared. “I figure the maximum wait would be a half-hour. I don’t think that’s too much for people to expect. This isn’t McDonald’s.”

gemery@projo.com