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.

    • @khannieOP
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      202 months ago

      GOOD GOD!!!

      • @[email protected]
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        232 months 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

        • @khannieOP
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          72 months 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.

          • @[email protected]
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            52 months 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.

    • BigFig
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      142 months ago

      North Houston Suburbs, no more than 20 minutes.

      • @[email protected]
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        82 months 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.

        • BigFig
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          32 months ago

          For sure, my area isn’t necessarily more wealthy, but it is definitely more republican. Coincidence?

  • @[email protected]
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    262 months 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.

    • @Poach
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      32 months ago

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

      • @[email protected]
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        12 months ago

        Man I wish, we have to go to the post office to get mail in my town. They don’t deliver to houses.

    • @khannieOP
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      112 months 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!

        • @khannieOP
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          2 months ago

          They cheat to win however they can.

          From the outside looking it it does appear that way but it seems so…un-American. I’ve spent a decent bit of time over there over the course of my life (north of 6 months total, mostly up and down both coasts) and I’m genuinely very fond of the US and its people and that has given me this internal sense of what “un-American” is if that isn’t a ludicrous statement.

          The whole “rig things to your advantage” thing is really mask off at this point and I’m surprised that it’s tolerated.

          • @[email protected]
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            2 months ago

            From the outside looking it it does appear that way but it seems so…un-American.

            it’s at our core and since our founding; things like the electoral college (the same one that’s helping trump win) were implemented to give the few wealthy people a way of preventing the masses of poor people from obtaining meaningful political representation. at the time of its inception, the few wealthy were slave owners and the masses of the poor were mostly immigrants with relatively strong abolitionist & populist views for the time.

            I’ve spent a decent bit of time over there over the course of my life (north of 6 months total, mostly up and down both coasts) and I’m genuinely very fond of the US and its people and that has given me this internal sense of what “un-American” is if that isn’t a ludicrous statement.

            i think it’s common if you don’t study the origin of this country deeply enough and i also think we all can be forgiven for not doing so since taking that action requires overcoming many obstacles designed to prevent you from doing so; also it’s depressing af and on too many levels.

          • @AA5B
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            32 months ago

            It’s by state, and would never be tolerated where I live.

            Unfortunately it seems to be a systemic issue with certain states. At one point several had federally monitored elections to prevent shenanigans but I don’t know if that’s true anymore

            • @[email protected]
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              2 months ago

              Unfortunately it seems to be a systemic issue with certain states. At one point several had federally monitored elections to prevent shenanigans but I don’t know if that’s true anymore

              i think that you’re referring to the voting rights act of 1965 and it was rendered toothless by the supreme court in 2013 and it was created because of those systematic issues.

  • @FluorideMind
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    192 months 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.

    • @khannieOP
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      2 months ago

      I think you hold the record so far!

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

  • @[email protected]
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    162 months 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.

  • @[email protected]
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    142 months 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.

    • Björn Tantau
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      122 months 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.

      • @[email protected]
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        42 months 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.

  • Curious Canid
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    122 months 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.

  • @[email protected]
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    112 months 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

  • jollyroberts
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    112 months ago

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

  • @[email protected]
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    92 months ago

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