What's the longest you've ever stood in line to vote?

[MizLibby]

I'm from CA, always voted in person on election day, usually in someone's garage down the street. Max wait ..5 minutes. I've move to WA, it's all mail-in or drop box now. And yes, I know how lucky I am and have been.

[elleng]

1. Maybe 30-45 minutes,

in MD.

Dropped in Box today.

[rownesheck]

2. It was today.

35 minutes.

[Dem2theMax]

3. Probably 5 minutes. I'm also in California.

But I've been voting by absentee ballot for at least 20 or 30 years.

And our voting place was in a neighbor's garage down the street from my house!

[madaboutharry]

4. About 45 minutes.

For Obama in 08.

[idziak4ever1234]

5. 20 minutes max in Grand Rapids, MI

[Proud liberal 80]

6. 1 hr and a half

today in Texas

[fleur-de-lisa]

7. 15 minutes . . . Norfolk, VA.

[SCantiGOP]

8. 5 minutes, but.........

I am in a red, middle class suburb in SC, so they want us to vote.
Go to the minority areas in downtown, and you will see long lines.

[Walleye]

9. About an hour. In NYC for Dukakis

[SoonerPride]

10. 30 years ago when I was in college I waited about 45 minutes.

Ever since then I have requested an absentee ballot and voted by mail.

[Awsi Dooger]

11. Maybe 45 minutes

At a Nevada shopping mall during early voting 2004

[Yonnie3]

12. Fifteen minutes in 2000

This was because two of the three folks checking in voters were dealing with people who were not in the register of voters. This slowed the check in from the usual few minutes. One voter was at the wrong polling place. I don't know what the issue was with the second, but eventually she did a provisional ballot.

[JHB]

13. Maybe 20 minutes, if it wasn't 10 that just felt longer.

Yes, mostly-white middle class suburbs. No shockers there.

That was years ago, in another state. For the last 20 or so, 5 minutes, usually less.

[NurseJackie]

14. Two hours... for the first day of early voting... for Barack Obama's first term.

[Iggo]

15. I think it was two hours, earlier this year in Whittier for the primary.

Back in 2008, I stood in line at least an hour to vote for Obama. That would have been at the Registrar/Recorder’s office in Norwalk.

And in ‘04 I stood in line for probably another hour trying to vote Dim Son out of office. That was at an old-folks home in the 909.

[MaryMagdaline]

16. 4 hours early voting in 2008

After that I’ve requested absentee ballots

[Shermann]

17. 5 minutes...hope it stays that way nt

[PatSeg]

18. Like you, probably five minutes

That would be in Illinois, then California, and now New Hampshire. The past few years, I've been voting by mail here due to health issues.

[mucifer]

19. I think it was around 2 hours voting for President Obama in Chicago in 2008 It was MAGICAL

very festive. Lots of people no one minded waiting.

[mchill]

20. No waiting in rural California

[gratuitous]

21. Less than half an hour in the long-ago beforetimes

I used to vote at the church two blocks down the street, and if memory serves, I never waited much more than 10 or 15 minutes when I didn't just walk right up to the table to get my ballot and have my name checked off. Living in Oregon, though, means your ballot is hand delivered to your home a couple of weeks before election day by a uniformed carrier of the United States Postal Service. I can sit down over a cup of coffee on a weekend morning, thumbing through the Voter's Guide provided by the Secretary of State's office, and vote on the candidates and ballot measures at my considerable leisure.

It's the only way to fly:

[Ace Rothstein]

22. 2 minutes at most.

Voting in Illinois is always a breeze. Where I grew up at in the city there was a precinct every other block with a half dozen spots to cast a ballot.

[Hoyt]

23. 5 hours, Kerry v bush. That's when I decided to vote absentee or early.

[PETRUS]

26. That was my longest wait, too.

I don't recall exactly, but I think I was in line for at least three or four hours.

[bbrady42]

24. About 3 hours

Voting for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primary

[JenniferJuniper]

25. 10 minutes, near Boston

The town I live in has about 8 schools and all of them open for voting on election day. I can walk to mine.

Usually I don't wait at all though. Check in, get a paper ballot, fill it out, stick it into the machine and off I go. Doesn't matter if its a presidential election or just the town.

It's shocking and sickening to me that some Americans have to wait in long lines. My experience should be everyone's experience.

[uppityperson]

27. 20 min or so. Now we've mail in.

[The Genealogist]

28. I waited well over an hour in 1994

I was voting at an old school, and within the precinct lived a good part of a large university's students. The line was well out the doors. It was a neat old building, and I enjoyed admiring at its unique architectural features while I waited.

[Bettie]

29. When I lived in Madison, the year Bill Clinton was first elected

Our voting location was at an apartment complex and we had to go at the time everyone was getting home from work.

So, we waited about 30 minutes.

Usually, five maybe ten minutes everywhere else.

[luvs2sing]

30. About two hours in 2008.

Hubster and I decided to early vote for Barack before going on a little vacation. We didn’t know it was Souls to the Polls Sunday, and there were hundreds of folks still in their church clothes lined up to vote. Church buses parked in the lot. It was in a big, multipurpose building, and everyone was talking, laughing, singing, like a big, happy, noisy party.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

31. Maybe 30 minutes?

During the 2004 Presidential election, where I overheard some other white male voters discussing their opposition to gay marriage. That was one of the drummed-up, phony issues repeated by Republicans and their propagandists THAT time.

It usually takes less time at this pretty small precinct.

[mercuryblues]

32. 2-3 hours

For Obama's 2nd election.

[JonLP24]

33. I always voted by mail

My first election was 2008.

[pnwest]

34. 2 hours-ish in 2004. I barely made it before they cut off the line at closing time.

[unc70]

35. Maybe 45 minutes, about 30 years ago, before early voting

The longest lines in NC now are mostly during early voting. Since we use mark sense to vote, we don't have the bottleneck of limited number of voting machines. Just need a writing surface and a pen. This year we get to keep the I Voted pen.

[Roland99]

36. 10-15 min? Between KY and FL

[moonscape]

37. Maybe 10 minutes once and I couldn't

believe the line I'm Central CA coast and we have lots of voting places.

[Mossfern]

38. 5 minutes, the most

Small bedroom community in NJ.

[marie999]

39. Less than 5 minutes.

Small town church.

[Aristus]

40. Couple of hours back when Washington State still had in-person voting.

2004. We were all motivated to vote GWB's idiot ass out of the White House.

Disappointed yet again...

There's been a huge effort to rehabilitate his sorry record as POTUS.

"Oh look! Michelle Obama likes him! He must be all right!"

No. Michelle Obama is a classy lady, that's all. Bush is still scum, and always will be.

I haven't forgotten...

[Celerity]

41. never had to wait more than 5 minutes max, not even for Brexit nt

[Chainfire]

42. I don't remember ever waiting

I usually walk straight into the polling place, give them my ID and vote. That said, I always vote early, I get to the polls soon after they open. I am in a rural county that actually does a very good job with managing the elections. The question is academic this time, I will wait as long as necessary.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

43. About 40 minutes, because I wanted to get to work.

I got to the polling place 40 minutes before they opened. I did this many times back when I used to work. I was always near the front of the line, got checked in, voted, on the way to work by 7:10.

Now I just use the drop box at city hall. I'm still in a hurry - I have an early tee time.

[DesertRat]

44. 5 min when I used to vote in person

For the last 8 years I've voted by mail.

[sweetloukillbot]

45. 6+ Hours for the 2016 primary in Arizona

They weren't expecting large crowds due to increased vote-by-mail and it being a primary. Boy were they wrong... Complete bumblefuck on the part of the county commisioner (who was voted out that November). They'd already called it for Hillary by the time I voted. Switched to permanent early voter afterwards - I've dropped off my ballots on election day since and never saw another long line.

[A Brand New World]

46. At the most, 15 min in Ohio.

Now live in WA so we drop into a Dropbox. In fact that is what we did today. YAY! It is an absolute disgrace that people in some areas have to wait hours to vote. That should not happen in the United States of America. I don’t see how they physically manage that long of a wait. Are there portable toilets available and are people able to leave the line??

[Maru Kitteh]

47. About 90 minutes in Wake County North Carolina, voted for Big Dog.

Second term.

[qwlauren35]

48. My memory is fuzzy.

In North Carolina, I think it was 4 hours, early voting in Winston-Salem.

In Maryland, it was 3-4 hours, early voting in Anne Arundel County.

But sometimes it's been 5 minutes.

[Turin_C3PO]

49. About 90 minutes.

[Luciferous]

50. I can't remember ever waiting in a line, and if I did it must have only been a couple

of minutes.

[W_HAMILTON]

51. Probably about 90 minutes to two hours, and that was when I went with my sister...

...to help her vote in 2018 for the first time in decades, if not ever (she thought she had never registered but she apparently had at some point, decades ago).

I also stayed on her to get her to request an absentee ballot this year and got her son and my mom to also vote in this year's elections.

[kimbutgar]

52. Maybe 5 minutes at the most in San Francisco

[Binkie The Clown]

53. Never. Oregon is purely vote by mail. nt

[Mz Pip]

54. 5 minutes

That was years ago. I’ve been voting by mail for quite awhile.

[Orangepeel]

55. about 3 hours. First day of early voting, Obama's first term

😃

[Blue_true]

56. 10 minutes. nt

[BluesRunTheGame]

57. Registered and voted same day early voting as a homeless person - maybe 15 minutes.

I’m an OTR trucker and haven’t kept a home for years. In 2016 I was living in Montana (PO Box and storage space). When it was time to vote I went to the polling place (Missoula County Fairgrounds) and tried to use my PO Box. They said: You can’t do that - where do you sleep when you’re in town? I googled my company’s terminal address and that’s what we used. They gave me my ballot, I voted and left. 15 minutes tops.

[tavernier]

58. Def under 10 minutes

[myccrider]

59. 5 minutes, California. n/t