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.
Houston, Texas. 4.5 hours
The lines are intentional to discourage you from voting
GOOD GOD!!!
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
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.
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.
North Houston Suburbs, no more than 20 minutes.
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.
For sure, my area isn’t necessarily more wealthy, but it is definitely more republican. Coincidence?
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.
Colorado, same. I voted 3 weeks ago.
You can even stick it back into your mail box (with the flag up), and the mail man should pick it up.
Man I wish, we have to go to the post office to get mail in my town. They don’t deliver to houses.
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.
I think you hold the record so far!
Edit: also fair play to you for sticking it out.
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.
Maybe 5 minutes in Germany
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.
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.
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.
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.
10 or so minutes once, I came there at the busiest time. Czechia.
~1 minute here in Austria, usually it takes longer to find the right room than to wait in line when I’ve found it
Four hours, NYC, early voting in 2020. This year it went a lot faster.
15 mins in AU. I thought I’d try to get it over and done with in the morning… so did everyone else.
20 seconds, Germany. Waiting while they checked if my name was on the list.
About 2-3 minutes. Canada.
40 minutes, once, in 2015, Canada.
Usually, 2-5 minutes.
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?
Huh, we’ve been to the polls a lot recently, haven’t we?
It does feel that way. Not sure if it’s foreign elections getting more coverage than they did before maybe shifting the balance in my head.
