question about voting in USA

[Steve Kubien]

A simple question.....

I've flipped through various tv news broadcasts today and the line-ups to vote are insane!!!!! Is this typical for you folks? I worked a poll booth this year for our federal election and the longest anyone waited at my poll was about 3 minutes.

What gives?

[Dave Bender]

Yep, pretty typical. Each State figures out how they want to do it and how much they want to spend on doing it. In typical years with low turnout it's not to bad, with heavy turnout the system breaks down. The US election system is pretty third world.

[Bob Rufener]

I just voted in my rural township and waited about 25 seconds to vote. It depends upon where you live. I was number 2007 for voting and that is a relatively high number based on the population here.

[Tom Veatch]

As Dave said, most all states handles it however they want to do it. Many states are getting a little less hide-bound traditional about it. For instance, I voted a week ago. Kansas, along with several other states has instituted a system of advance voting that spreads the load out over several days. Don't know what the lines looked like around here today, but I noticed a headline in this morning's paper that indicated tens of thousands of local voters took advantage of advance voting in this election. EDIT: Over 106,000 advance ballots in our county alone.

It can't help but improve the situation with voting spread out over a week or more instead of concentrated into a few hours on a single day.

[Joe Pelonio]

I just heard a projection of 65% voter turnout, the highest since 1908.

Despite that, I just returned from the church where we vote. There were tables to sign in for 8 precincts, all empty. My wife, daughter and I went to ours and a couple more people got behind us. There were maybe 10 people voting but still 5 empty booths waiting for us so no wait at all.

[Ken Werner]

My wife and I had to wait for one person before us to vote - at about 2 pm. Our daughter, living on Long Island, NY, waited 2 hours.

[Brian Kent]

The early voting lines were hours long in Riverside, CA. I voted this morning at 7:30 AM and all of the voting booths were occupied but there was no wait time. Early voting had one or two locations for our city. Today's had dozens.

[Lucas Bittick]

A simple question.....

I've flipped through various tv news broadcasts today and the line-ups to vote are insane!!!!! Is this typical for you folks? I worked a poll booth this year for our federal election and the longest anyone waited at my poll was about 3 minutes.

What gives?

Its not typical. The current situation is a combination of 2 things:

1. No national voting system-- most democratic countries have national administration of voting-- in the U.S. it is a local matter, meaning there is a wide variety of machines, ballot designs, and funding available. This means that there are significant variations in efficiency. So, the media will find the districts with a high population density and low finances that will inevitably have crowded polling places and problems with voting machines.

2. Traditionally mediocre turnout-- historically, the U.S. averages about 50% voter turnout; anything over 50% is considered strong.

Given this year's exceptionally high voter turnout combined with a quirky and inflexible voting system, there will be polling places unable to efficiently handle the lines of voters. That is what you are seeing on television-- it isn't representative of every polling place in the U.S.

[Bruce Page]

The wife & I took advantage of the early voting ten days ago. No waiting at all.

[Rob Damon]

Our local news was giving the impression of heavy and long lines everywhere. True, but not everywhere and always.

From talking with the volunteers at the voting station I went to, folks were lining up to vote at 5:00am and the lines were going around the school building by the time the polls open at 7:00am. My wife went at 9:00am and there was only 5 people in front of her. It took her 15 minutes total to drive there, vote and drive home.

I stopped by on my way home and hit it 4:30pm, and I was the only one in my line and there were only 5 people there voting. Had I waited until after most folks got off work, the lines would have picked up a little.

To be fair in talking with a few folks that did get there really early, they did talk about waiting in line 2 1/2 hours to vote. When I asked what time they got there they said between 5:30-6:00am.

Rob

[Karl Brogger]

I showed up 20 minutes after they opened. Waited less than a minute in line. Most of which was figuring out which table to go to.

[Chris Padilla]

My wife walked into our local polling place with hers and mine mail-in ballots and simply handed them off. We're too cheap to put the 60 cents of postage on them! :D

[Mike DeHart]

spent more time waiting for the poll worker to finish chit chatting with somebody than the rest of the process took.

[Roger Bell]

Oregon has mail in ballots. You get your ballot a few weeks ahead of time. You can mail them in or drop them off at ballot boxes at a few official places, such as libraries. You can vote right away or wait to drop them off at 8 pm on election day....your choice.

[Gregg Feldstone]

We didn't have to wait for early voting either, but the old codger manning the booth told my girlfriend WHO to vote for in the one man race for dogcatcher and JP.....really happened when she asked a question about the click wheel thingy on the machine.

[Dennis Peacock]

10 minute wait for us. Not a problem at all. A good cup of coffee and a chair while you wait. Can't ask to make it any easier. :)

[Frank Hagan]

To answer the OP's question, no, we usually don't have long lines. What happened this year is that several states have allowed "early voting", and the local jurisdictions open up a small number of voting locations. This year, both campaigns stressed early voting, so a lot more people showed up for it than expected.

In America, we run around with cameras looking for things we don't like, so we can tut-tut about them and beat ourselves up. I think its part of our Puritan heritage, but instead of flogging ourselves with short whips, we send cameras out and send the pictures all over the world saying "Look how bad we are!" Probably like the media everywhere, it isn't news unless its bad, so what you see are the worst cases in a huge country. Most Europeans have a hard time realizing our states are as big as their countries; California's economy is something like the 5th largest in the world, ahead of many European countries. Imagine a EU election held on the same day in all the EU countries, and you get a sense of how diverse and complex our elections are.

[Wes Bischel]

No wait at the two polling sites in my neighborhood. It took more time to walk there than it did to vote.:)
There was one place in a neighboring county that had a line - guess where the news cameras were.:rolleyes: And Frank you can't guess since you already know the answer!;)

Wes

PS Though I grew up in Chicago, I only voted once at one polling site. The other is across from my son's school.:D :D

[Steve Kubien]

Thanks everyone. I kinda figured it was a case of the media looking for the most outrageous situation and claiming it was the norm.

Cheers,
Steve

[Jay Jolliffe]

We vote at the town office/ medical center so we were able to vote & get a flu shot all in about 10 minutes. The flu shot took the most time.....One stop shopping. You gotta love a winter population of 600 :)

[Jason Roehl]

Well, I moved into a different county last year, so my usual vote time of under 5 minutes went out the window. I had only voted in my life in the thriving metropolis of Mulberry, IN (pop. ~1200), since I moved there in '96 before my 22nd birthday--the '96 national election was the first in which I voted.

According to local news, some polling places were projected to be less busy, so I selected one near my jobsite and went there. Unfortunately for me it was close to campus, so there were quite a few students there. Still, it only took about 20-30 minutes total. Our county has electronic touch-screens, and "vote center" voting, so when they determine your precinct, they load a memory card with your appropriate ballot, which you insert in the voting machine. My objection to this system is that there is no voter-verifiable paper trail that could be recounted. We all know how dependable computers are... :rolleyes:

[Jim Becker]

We vote at the town office/ medical center so we were able to vote & get a flu shot all in about 10 minutes. The flu shot took the most time.....One stop shopping. You gotta love a winter population of 600

Now that's a kewel arrangement, although I cannot complain about the big basket of...chocolate...that was by the exit door from our polling location! LOL

[Belinda Barfield]

I voted early and still waited in line for an hour. A wait is not typical for our area. No chairs, no coffee, no doughnuts, no flu shots, and they were out of "I Voted" stickers. The sticker would have gotten me a free coffee, a free doughnut, a free chicken sandwich, and half off of a banana split at a local ice cream shop. So goes voting in the good old U.S.

You might, however, find the early voting location interesting . . . the Mosquito Control office. They aren't busy controlling skeeters this time of year apparently. I got to vote, and learn all about the life cycle of local skeeters, and how to prevent them from breeding on my property.

[Justin Leiwig]

I work for the board of elections here. Yesterday when I arrived to start opening my precinct at 5:15 am I had 3 people already waiting for me. The polls didn't open until 6:30 at which time the line stretched out the door and down the block. We processed almost 50% of all the voters in our precinct between 6:30 and 9 am. The rest of the day was really really slow and boring.

After all the media hype I was really expecting more. There was no drama anywhere and the board actually stopped counting around 2 am and decided to go home and get some sleep to be back at it bright and early all because it was such a resounding victory.

[Eric Larsen]

I hope this is the beginning of a trend. 65% is still woefully inadequate.

Can you imagine what this country would be like if -- like Malta and Australia -- 95% of eligible voters actually voted?

[Lucas Bittick]

Probably like the media everywhere, it isn't news unless its bad, so what you see are the worst cases in a huge country... Imagine a EU election held on the same day in all the EU countries, and you get a sense of how diverse and complex our elections are.

Well-written, Frank. You made the point I was trying to make, but much more eloquently.

[Judy Kingery]

Went at noon and voted, while fairly steady in terms of voters showing up and leaving, no wait at all. Sign here, go vote, thanks! We've never had to wait at our precinct more than maybe 3-4 minutes, and at that very close by, so easy in Texas.

Jude

[Rob Russell]

Our voting process was far smoother than it used to be.

It used to be "go to the table by street, get your id checked and your name crossed off the list, then go to the machine" which was the old kind with the little flip down levers. There was generally a line trying to get through the registration tables and a line waiting for the machines.

Now we're using the paper ballots that you color in the circles next to your choices. Yesterday I breezed right through and there were definitely more people processing through than I remember seeing in prior elections.

[Neal Clayton]

We didn't have to wait for early voting either, but the old codger manning the booth told my girlfriend WHO to vote for in the one man race for dogcatcher and JP.....really happened when she asked a question about the click wheel thingy on the machine.

brings new meaning to the phrase "that guy couldn't get elected dog catcher" that we like to say about bad politicians :cool:

[Monte Milanuk]

Mail in ballots here, for everything. Filled mine out on the 2nd, on the 3rd I drove by the city library which had a locked ballot drop box out front, dropped them off and never even got out of the car ;)

[Craig Summers]

No real wait for me, had the day off and waited for the morning rush to subside. By 10 am there was a 6 person 'line'. 5 minutes for the civic duty in my small town.

I also worked two hours in the afternoon handing out sample ballots, it felt good to volunteer and chat with the voters. No line in the afternoon at all, everyone was upbeat inspite of the light drizzle/rain.

[Sonny Edmonds]

... at our mailbox.
We vote by mail, absentee ballot. ;)
(Not that it does any good...)

[Brian Elfert]

We use optically scanned paper ballots here. If you didn't care about privacy in a voting booth, you could just sit or stand about anywhere in the polling place and fill out your ballot.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

No wait. None - ever.