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.
About 15 minutes, this morning in Wilmington, NC. In previous elections here, I’ve walked in and voted immediately, with no line
I’m gonna grasp at that being positive. My favourite band at a ripe old age, Sylvan Esso, are from NC.
About an hour. New Zealand. Things weren’t well-organised that day.
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.
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.
I think you hold the record so far!
Edit: also fair play to you for sticking it out.
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.
Did you get your sausage?
I’ve actually never gotten sausage after voting 😬
Shambles. :)
Maybe 30 to 45 minutes in Merritt Island, Florida, back in 2004.
It was my first time voting, and I went with my parents after they were home from work, so it’s likely that that was the longest anyone there waited.
I’ve lived all over central Florida since, and have never had to wait at all, but that’s mostly because I do Early Voting or even Vote By Mail now.
3 hour wait to vote for Obama. Since then it’s been 20-30 minutes every time.
The longest for me was about 30 seconds. Coincidentally about as much as sex.
What a weird thing to say
5 mins, new Zealand. The voting places are super empty because they open for multiple days.
I once waited half an hour for voting, because I foolishly decided to vote just when Sunday mass was over (we vote on Sundays, and my polling station was right across the church). Never made that mistake again, waiting time is usually five to ten minutes.
Location: Germany
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.
I haven’t ever needed to wait. I go in, hand them my ID, they cross my name off the list, hand me the ballot, I go to the booth and write a number, dude stamps it, I drop it to the box and I’m out. Takes about 3 minutes from when I step out of my car untill I’m back in again.
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.
Probably about 2 minutes, but usually I never have to queue.
