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submitted 15 hours ago by khannie@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

Me: Ireland - Approximately 2 minutes until poll in hand is the longest.

I've been seeing long lines for the US elections even for early voting. Seems completely unnecessary.

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[-] bleistift2@sopuli.xyz 4 points 6 hours ago

20 seconds, Germany. Waiting while they checked if my name was on the list.

[-] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago

About 15 minutes, this morning in Wilmington, NC. In previous elections here, I've walked in and voted immediately, with no line

[-] khannie@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

I'm gonna grasp at that being positive. My favourite band at a ripe old age, Sylvan Esso, are from NC.

[-] spittingimage@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

About an hour. New Zealand. Things weren't well-organised that day.

[-] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 6 hours ago

I think there were like two couples and another person entering the building just ahead of me, so I had to wait 10 seconds until it was my turn to drop my envelope in the urn. This was in Switzerland, in a suburb of Zürich.

But more often I just walk in up to the box, say hello to the people organising and drop it in directly. I've never encountered a queue yet.

[-] FluorideMind@lemmy.world 14 points 10 hours ago

7 hours. People were showing up with pizza and sandwiches for everyone in line. It really destroyed my faith in my local government but built my sense of community.

[-] khannie@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

I think you hold the record so far!

Edit: also fair play to you for sticking it out.

[-] thisisdee@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago

Australia (Sydney). A few years ago I went and there was a queue going outside the door and volunteers were telling people that it would take 30-45 minutes but to please stay in line. They were also handing out Tim Tams for people in line. I decided to try another polling station instead, which was 10-15 minutes walk away. There was no queue at all there so I was out within a couple minutes. So that one took the longest even though most of it was walking to another location. Wish there was a way to tell the people in that queue that other locations were empty.

[-] khannie@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago
[-] thisisdee@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

I’ve actually never gotten sausage after voting 😬

[-] khannie@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

Shambles. :)

[-] bcgm3@lemmy.world 4 points 8 hours ago

Maybe 30 to 45 minutes in Merritt Island, Florida, back in 2004.

It was my first time voting, and I went with my parents after they were home from work, so it's likely that that was the longest anyone there waited.

I've lived all over central Florida since, and have never had to wait at all, but that's mostly because I do Early Voting or even Vote By Mail now.

[-] eldavi@lemmy.ml 64 points 15 hours ago

Houston, Texas. 4.5 hours

The lines are intentional to discourage you from voting

[-] khannie@lemmy.world 17 points 15 hours ago
[-] eldavi@lemmy.ml 21 points 15 hours ago

Fwiw it was less than 10 mins in the affluent neighborhoods I lived near San Francisco, California and New York and 1.5 hours in the poor neighborhoods in those same cities

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[-] Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world 13 points 15 hours ago

North Houston Suburbs, no more than 20 minutes.

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[-] Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 10 hours ago

3 hour wait to vote for Obama. Since then it's been 20-30 minutes every time.

[-] kurcatovium@lemm.ee 3 points 9 hours ago

The longest for me was about 30 seconds. Coincidentally about as much as sex.

[-] BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee 2 points 6 hours ago

What a weird thing to say

[-] Fizz@lemmy.nz 4 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

5 mins, new Zealand. The voting places are super empty because they open for multiple days.

[-] Curious_Canid@lemmy.ca 12 points 12 hours ago

My first presidential election was in 1980. I waited almost six hours to vote for Jimmy Carter in Iowa City, Iowa, USA (a medium-sized college town).

It was surprisingly festive. There were people walking the line handing out water and snacks. There were several musicians performing at various points along the line.

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 5 points 10 hours ago

I once waited half an hour for voting, because I foolishly decided to vote just when Sunday mass was over (we vote on Sundays, and my polling station was right across the church). Never made that mistake again, waiting time is usually five to ten minutes.

Location: Germany

[-] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 4 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

I haven't ever needed to wait. I go in, hand them my ID, they cross my name off the list, hand me the ballot, I go to the booth and write a number, dude stamps it, I drop it to the box and I'm out. Takes about 3 minutes from when I step out of my car untill I'm back in again.

[-] nobody158@sh.itjust.works 25 points 15 hours ago

Oregon here 0 minutes. My ballot is delivered in the mail and I can drop it off at the post office or ballot drop box.

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[-] That_Devil_Girl@lemmy.ml 13 points 13 hours ago

Portsmouth, Virginia here. The early in-person voting line was around the block and took over 2 hours to get through.

Granted it's not as long as others, but it is a good sign when early voting lines are so long.

[-] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 12 points 13 hours ago

That's not a good sign. That's a sign that your government wants to keep people from voting. There should be more voting locations. Like, 5 to 10 times more.

[-] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 4 points 10 hours ago

If I remember correctly, Republicans in Georgia have consolidated voting locations in Atlanta--which is heavily Democratic--despite there being long line and hours of waiting in 2020. Is it intentional? 100%. In the rural parts of Georgia--and I'm pretty rural--you're in and out in only slightly longer than it takes to read the ballot.

[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago

5 minutes. I don't live in a swing state and go during work hours, so that might effect it.

[-] NJSpradlin@lemmy.world 20 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

I remember rushing home, changing out of my uniform and jumping in line at the local library… and I stood there for like 4-6 hours in the freezing cold. Rosario Dawson, the actress, actually came by with donuts, back before the republicans outlawed providing food and water to people in voting lines. I actually took a picture of my wife with her, she was so kind. My wife and I were taking turns hiding in the car to stay warm, and saving a place in line. I couldn’t believe how cold and how long the line was. The shitty thing was that it was also extremely windy, the cold bit hard.

This was Atlanta, GA probably for the Biden/Trump election in 2020. I’ve voted early ever since, I walk in and out within like 15 minutes now. I’m not doing 4-6 hour lines ever again.

Edit: poll workers actually came out and designated someone as the last voter, and we stayed in line well past the normal close time. But, they had to get the last person who showed up before close.

[-] khannie@lemmy.world 10 points 14 hours ago

poll workers actually came out and designated someone as the last voter

I did wonder about this. That's cool to know and seems like a fair way to run it if you're in the line before the station closes. Thanks for the insight.

Awesome about Rosario Dawson too!

[-] NJSpradlin@lemmy.world 17 points 14 hours ago

The shitty thing is, the long lines are by design. Election officials are regularly closing polling locations in inner cities because ‘they don’t have the funding to keep so many open’, when the state government chooses not to fund them. Rural areas have always had quick in-and-out voting merely due to how many people they’re providing for. While increasing the wait times at inner city polling places causes some voters to either not get the chance to vote because either they’re not allowed to at some point, or the extra votes aren’t sent up because they were too late… or it causes people to go home instead of wait in the freezing cold ass line for 4-6 hours. Some people were complaining about 8 hour lines that year.

They cheat to win however they can.

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[-] nichtburningturtle@feddit.org 3 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

No more than 5 minutes.

[-] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 hours ago

The one time I voted actually on election day I waited about 20 minutes. This is in Suburban North Carolina. I was in line about 5 minutes this election.

[-] CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago

Usually not very long but one time there were THREE cars in front of me at the drive through ballot drop box. That was a good 20 to 30 seconds of my life I'll never get back. Bunch of slackers waiting til the last day!

Yesterday I went to vote in person for the first time in a really long time, because I moved to a different county and didn't re-register soon enough to get a mail-in ballot. It was super smooth, didn't wait longer than a minute or two while they did their admin stuff and then I was voting.

Colorado, USA.

[-] blackn1ght@feddit.uk 2 points 9 hours ago

Probably about 2 minutes, but usually I never have to queue.

[-] whome@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 9 hours ago

If I remember correctly in Corona times it was something like 10-15 minutes. Other then that mostly not at all. Country Germany

[-] paddirn@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago

About an hour in 2020 I think. I'm in a semi-rural Republican-leaning district that won't ever vote Democrat, but I still show up to vote anyways. Usually, I'm in and out pretty quickly every election, maybe 5-10 minutes at most. For some reason, guessing because of its importance, 2020 the line just took quite a bit longer. Every other election, presidential or otherwise, there's never a wait.

[-] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago

Still waiting cast my vote for Obama the second time.

Maybe if Missouri gets a new AG they'll get around to processing those provisional ballots.

[-] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 3 points 10 hours ago

About 45 minutes, as I recall, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I think that was the year that marriage equality (e.g., gay marriage) was on the ballot in Michigan. (I just looked it up; it was a vote to amend the state constitution to ban civil unions and marriage equality.) That was in 2004. Since then, I don't remember ever having to wait more than 10 minutes when voting in person.

[-] 0ops@lemm.ee 3 points 10 hours ago

Today in the US was for me. The polling place was only a 5 minute walk away, but the wait was about 45 minutes. Tbf though, I naturally managed to pick the slowest moving line by a good margin; people who were initially standing behind me switched to other lines midway through and were able to get their ballot before me. I would guess most people were there for 30 minutes.

For every previous election I voted in-person, the wait was like 10 minutes tops, but those were in smaller towns.

[-] RebekahWSD@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

A few minutes. No minutes today, or most years here. I'm in a solidly blue state though.

[-] mesamunefire@lemmy.world 4 points 12 hours ago
  1. Mail in ballot for every single election.

Ive heard some people locally take at most 30 mins.

[-] IggyTheSmidge@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 15 hours ago

England - never been a line. The only thing I've ever had to wait for is for the bod manning the polling station to find my name on the list and hand me a voting slip. In and out in a couple of minutes.

[-] sobanto@feddit.org 13 points 15 hours ago

Maybe 5 minutes in Germany

[-] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 14 hours ago

~1 minute here in Austria, usually it takes longer to find the right room than to wait in line when I've found it

[-] theywilleatthestars@lemmy.world 5 points 13 hours ago

Two and a half hours early voting in Chicago

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this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2024
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