When I vote, I walk to my local voting place, chat with people I know, vote, chat a bit more, then walk home. Perhaps half an hour, if I'm feeling chatty.

[–] neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zone 70 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

This is what voter suppression looks like.

I grew up in Missouri before moving to Washington state. When I reached voting age, it was (and still is) ridiculously common to see polling places in rural and suburban areas with no waiting to vote. Meanwhile, in the cities (which happen to vote more democratic), you’ll see loooong lines extending outside. When voting facilities and staff are not proportionally distributed to accommodate voter density, you get shit like this; voters in different districts receiving different treatment. And people who live there never know any better to ask for something different.

This all blew my mind after living first in a suburban area, then an urban one, and now living in a state that has done voting my mail for decades. I love voting by mail. It’s unconcionable to me at this point for people to stand for in-person voting anymore.

[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago

Sad part is I am.in a small town, but this was only place to early vote for the county.

[–] Ultraviolet@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It's probably a blue area in a red state. They intentionally open fewer polling places there as a voter suppression tactic, hoping people will see the line and figure their vote doesn't have enough weight to justify the time.

[–] OmnislashIsACloudApp@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

exactly this. I've moved around a bit and the only places I've had to wait any significant amount of time have been near cities in red states.

really wish we just had universal vote by mail

[–] CluelessLemmyng@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 3 weeks ago

Where I live, we had early voting for a whole month now. We went during the second week - 0 minute wait. It took longer to walk into the building and follow the signs than it was to get my ballot, vote, and walk out.

[–] NotSteve_@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 weeks ago

I came here to say the same thing. Like I've waited behind a few people before in Cananda but a line going out the door and down the street is insane

[–] copd@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I just mail my vote, mail comes in fill in form and mail goes out.

It takes 5mins out of my day tops

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

I also vote by mail and it usually takes me longer in non-presidential years because there's more offices to vote for and zero local campaigning. So I have to creep on people on social media to know if I'm comfortable with them having the powers of prothonotary.

[–] MonkeMischief 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

That's so much "fun" with all those tiny local offices. "Okay who is this person?"

Zero public web presence about them at all.

It'd be nice if there was something like Ballotpedia but public owned. "You want to run for an office? You need to fill out this profile."

I imagine lots of people are just like "Eh, this name sounds pretty." Lol

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

For one the only thing I could find was a locked-down Facebook profile.

They were running unopposed.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

zero local campaigning

That's usually true here as well. This year is the only time I have seen someone campaign. I know him and he's an amazing guy, so I hope he wins, but I have just never seen local politicians willing to go out and press the flesh.

He works for one of the local TV stations as a "one-man-band" (someone who goes out with a camera and gets the story and the interview and such themselves, but doesn't get a reporter credit), so he knows how to talk to people, likes to talk to people, and he's well-known in the community.

That's it. Him. No one else ever.

Probably why we had the same Republican mayor for four terms.