Ask Lemmy

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.

<5min Germany

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.

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.

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.

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.

No more than 5 minutes.

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.

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

Australia (Sydney). A few years ago I went and there was a queue going outside the door and volunteers were telling people that it would take 30-45 minutes but to please stay in line. They were also handing out Tim Tams for people in line. I decided to try another polling station instead, which was 10-15 minutes walk away. There was no queue at all there so I was out within a couple minutes. So that one took the longest even though most of it was walking to another location. Wish there was a way to tell the people in that queue that other locations were empty.

About an hour. New Zealand. Things weren't well-organised that day.

5 - 10 min. Germany

~10min in Canada

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

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 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

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 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 had vote by mail my entire life (well, of voting age anyway). So 0.

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

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.

Oh, I'm thinking about 20 minutes in line outside a small community center, back when I lived in North Dakota (pop of whole state about 600,000). As a lifelong nomad, it was the only state I lived where I actually attended a Democratic party caucus. It was an enjoyable excursion into a behind-the-scenes election process that most will never venture into. Best part was, I escaped without being signed up for anything more!

30 Minutes in Germany

Germany, zero minutes. Postal voting ftw!

Brazil, 5 minutes

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’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.)