Ask Lemmy

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.

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.

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

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)

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

No more than 5 minutes.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

I had to queue for about 5 minutes for the EU referendum in the UK.

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.

<5min Germany

10 minutes, from leaving home to getting back to home, by foot. I have always had a polling place withing walking distance, and have never seen a line more than a few people.

I lived in a city of 25,000 people, a city of 200,000 people, and a city of 10,000 people, all in western NY.

I always vote before 8am.

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

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

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.

Probably 5 minutes or so. 10 if I include the time spent driving there. Usually it's quiet enough that it's not waiting in line but rather waiting to have everything sorted out.

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.

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

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

Now getting there is another matter.

Never more than 10 minutes. Often no waiting at all.

In Germany, we have small local voting places everywhere. These are like makeshift offices that exist only for this day in the schools or other public places. Volunteers are working there to support the voting procedures, usually on a Sunday from 8-18h, and in the evening they count the votes, according to a strict protocol.

Germany, zero minutes. Postal voting ftw!

In 2009 there were like three people in line in front of me. Must've taken at least 30 seconds before an available election official could check my ID. It was extremely early in the early voting period, and there was only one place open that early. I was going to be abroad for the next month, so I had to vote that day.

When not voting early, I can't recall there ever being a line.

"2009 election, you say??"

Norway.

I think about 10 minutes in Canada. Maybe 15 when I was in Vancouver.

I always do early voting. Usually no wait but unfortunately I picked a sunny weekend day to do it once, had to wait 15 minutes.

I’ve never had to wait long in New Orleans or DC except for odd circumstances but those places essentially have predetermined elections.

• During the pandemic in New Orleans, they made the Smoothie King Center the main early voting location. That took a couple of hours but in normal years, I vote at a fire department and it just takes a few minutes.

• In 2008 in DC, I lived near the White House and my polling place was an historic AME church that was a spot on the Underground Railroad. Every global news channel with staff in DC — so all of them — was trying to interview people. So, I’m not sure that was the voting system’s fault so much as global media asking everyone for a sound bite. (I got interviewed by Japan’s NHK but I didn’t make the cut. If I want to get on Japanese TV, I guess I’ll have to go on a game show.)

But I’ve never lived in a competitive state or district. DC doesn’t have real representation in Congress and Louisiana’s 2nd district is drawn for Voting Rights Act compliance reasons so it’s also not typically competitive. (Louisiana also elects state/local officials in non-presidential years so it’s rarely got much on the ballot besides President and maybe an amendment or two. This year, we voted on whether offshore wind farms would participate in the coastal wetlands restoration program like offshore oil rigs.)