96
submitted 2 weeks 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.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] eldavi@lemmy.ml 76 points 2 weeks ago

Houston, Texas. 4.5 hours

The lines are intentional to discourage you from voting

[-] khannie@lemmy.world 19 points 2 weeks ago
[-] eldavi@lemmy.ml 22 points 2 weeks 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

[-] khannie@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

That's an interesting one. I live in a small town (~10K). It's a fairly middle-class suburb of Dublin and the only place I've ever voted (but many times). Makes me curious if it's different in other neighbourhoods.

[-] eldavi@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 weeks ago

i've lived in 11 cities in this country over the decades chasing work to maintain my health insurance and my experienced seemed normal to my neighbors who had lived there most of their lives as well.

most of those cities had a large proportion of transplants like me and their experiences mirrored mine.

[-] Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago

North Houston Suburbs, no more than 20 minutes.

[-] eldavi@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 weeks ago

ditto when i moved to austin.

anecdotally: the length of the lines correlate with the wealth of the voting district. i think that texas is like arizona & georgia in that when the lines are long; they're REALLY long compared to the long lines i experienced in california, new york, & illinois; but the short line places always seemed to be much emptier on election day for some reason.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] nobody158@sh.itjust.works 26 points 2 weeks 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.

[-] QuarterSwede@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

Colorado, same. I voted 3 weeks ago.

[-] Poach@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

You can even stick it back into your mail box (with the flag up), and the mail man should pick it up.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] FluorideMind@lemmy.world 18 points 2 weeks 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.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] IggyTheSmidge 16 points 2 weeks 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 15 points 2 weeks ago

Maybe 5 minutes in Germany

[-] That_Devil_Girl@lemmy.ml 14 points 2 weeks 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 2 weeks 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.

[-] rikudou@lemmings.world 12 points 2 weeks ago

10 or so minutes once, I came there at the busiest time. Czechia.

[-] Curious_Canid@lemmy.ca 12 points 2 weeks 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.

Four hours, NYC, early voting in 2020. This year it went a lot faster.

[-] FrostyCaveman@lemm.ee 9 points 2 weeks ago

15 mins in AU. I thought I’d try to get it over and done with in the morning.. so did everyone else.

[-] bleistift2@sopuli.xyz 8 points 2 weeks ago

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

[-] Sundial@lemm.ee 8 points 2 weeks ago

About 2-3 minutes. Canada.

40 minutes, once, in 2015, Canada.

Usually, 2-5 minutes.

[-] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

US- Wife went 30 minutes after polls opened and ended up waiting an hour today. New location for us, so don't know if this is normal here. I'll edit later with my experience.

Edit: Went around 3pm and waited maybe 5 mins

[-] savvywolf@pawb.social 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Scotland. I forget which vote it was for (either the independence referendum, brexit, elections, etc.) but maybe 5-10 mins. Other than that one it's been mostly a ghost town.

... Huh, we've been to the polls a lot recently, haven't we?

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Kit 5 points 2 weeks ago

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

[-] theywilleatthestars@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

Two and a half hours early voting in Chicago

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks 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

[-] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

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

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] naeap@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 weeks ago

Maybe 2-5mins, if they had to sort something out first with a person in front of me

Usually I go in, have a line of 2-3 people at most, and just tell my name and address, go vote and I'm usually done in like 5mins altogether - 10-15mins for the process is already something I've never experienced and would pretty much get to my nerves...

(Austria)

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] bcgm3@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks 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.

[-] kurcatovium@lemm.ee 4 points 2 weeks ago

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

[-] BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee 4 points 2 weeks ago
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] mesamunefire@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago
  1. Mail in ballot for every single election.

Ive heard some people locally take at most 30 mins.

[-] Volkditty@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Just got back from voting, no wait. It's about a 10 minute walk from my house to the polling place. They had 3 lanes open for people to check in, only 1 was occupied. I was in and out in under 5 minutes. Longest I've ever had to wait was probably 45-60 minutes in 2016 but that was at a different polling place that was always poorly organized.

[-] Magister@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Voting for any French election while in Montréal (Québec, Canada) is usually a 3-4 hours wait line

[-] Annoyed_Crabby@monyet.cc 4 points 2 weeks ago

30min in Malaysia in the morning, before the weather get hot. Afterward i've heard it's 5 to 10min. Some people line up for an hour or so on polling station serving larger population.

[-] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks 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.

[-] lvxferre@mander.xyz 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Ten minutes, I guess? Brazil.

Hard of hearing old lady, right before me, was struggling to vote in the 2022 elections. Apparently she typed the numbers for her candidates but they didn't go through. All five of them (governor, state deputy, president, federal deputy, senator).

Typically it takes 2~3 minutes though.

[-] anon6789@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Somewhere between suburban and rural Pennsylvania here. I think it was about 2 hours the time voted for Obama's second term. Another presidential election was about an hour. Presidental elections have lines outside of work hours because nobody gets off to vote. Non-presidential elections are a few minutes to maybe a half hour tops.

I'm so glad they didn't get rid of early voting after COVID, but I wish the drop boxes were around for more than a few hours on 2 weekends. I like dropping it off rather than trusting the mail, but they're only open 8-5 on weekdays and 10-2 on the last 2 weekends.

[-] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

10 minutes max in a couple different cities in Kansas, USA, in more that a dozen elections.

That is how it should be everywhere with in person polling locations.

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.

[-] 0ops@lemm.ee 3 points 2 weeks 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.

[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

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

[-] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 3 points 2 weeks ago

At most maybe half an hour. People here are quick about that.

Now getting there is another matter.

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2024
96 points (100.0% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26996 readers
1300 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS