Americans and non-Americans: what is the longest time you've waited in line to vote?

[The Albatross]

American here -- I've never waited longer than like 5-10 mins, probably 2008 was the longest I ever waited. Big crowds for Obama that year. Usually it's walk in and walk out in about 60 seconds. I've voted like... I dunno, 40-50 times maybe in my life, and used to go with my parents as a kid. Of course, I live in Massachusetts which doesn't try to restrict voting.

I also live about...... a 60 second walk from my voting locations.

Worth noting -- if you're in majority white, majority middle class and up precincts ... You don't have to wait in america. Most of the people here are white and middle class and up.

 

[Miniature Kaiju]

Non-American, 10 minutes during peak time, but usually there's no wait.

 

[gozu]

2 Hours here in the US.

I vote by mail now.

wish everybody here got a $50 tax credit for filling in their ballots and sending them back. Kinda like australia but with a carrot instead of stick,

 

[Famassu]

Maybe 20-30 minutes when I voted on the actual election day and there were a lot of people abound. Generally no more than 3-4 minutes when I vote early. Here in Finland we have at least 1 voting station in pretty much every suburb/neighborhood (at least in a city of ~130 000 people), some of the bigger ones might have more. I can usually just walk in before a trip to the store, there's maybe 2-3 people before me and those don't generally take too long to do their thing.

 

[Deleted member 7051]

Like a minute? Two minutes? We don't really need to queue to vote here in the UK.

 

[Keikaku]

Maybe a minute. Finland.

 

[mhayes86]

Maryland (2008 and 2012). Maybe 10-15 minutes and painless in person.

Virginia (2016 and 2020). Took a bit more time in 2016 (25 mins?) because I requested an absentee and didn't know that VA was pretty strict about it, so I returned it and went in to vote in person. They questioned me about it since they had me on record that I had an absentee sent, and had to fill out an additional form, IIRC. 2020 took two seconds. Got an absentee without needing a reason, fortunately. My wife and I drove to a polling place a few weeks ago when early voting started here and dropped ours off in one of their drop boxes as opposed to a post box.

 

[Walter White Walker]

I haven't done in-person voting in over 20 years (mail only), but when I did I don't recall it every taking more than 5 minutes.

 

[Novoitus]

in 2018 I waited like 30 mins in line. In IL

 

[BlueGeezer]

UK. Can't ever recall waiting? Maybe a min perhaps?

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

In the US, small town in Minnesota. Maybe ten minutes at most on presidential election days. For anything smaller it's just walk in and vote.

 

[NadaSpecialist]

American in northern New Jersey.

The most I've waited is maybe two minutes. Where I vote there are always more voting booths than people waiting to vote. So I just get my information verified by the poll workers and vote. It's always felt like dropping a letter off at a mailbox.

 

[ty_hot]

Brazil, probably 5 minutes or so (when we have to vote on 5 candidates) or 2-3 (when you have to vote on 2).

 

[thesoapster]

Maryland (USA) - 2012 early voting. I waited in line ~45 minutes. If I had just gone on election day it would have been maybe 3-5.

 

[Bigwombat]

I've lived in Massachusetts, Tucson Arizona and new orleans Louisiana during presidential election years.

Out of state voters when I was at university of Arizona could vote in one of the deans offices and I waited about 15 minutes to vote that day.

Massachusetts is always super fast. Got my vote by mail the other day and dropped it off at a ballot mail box by town hall.

 

[EloKa]

Germany, I guess the 5 secs it takes to check your id.

 

[ninnanuam]

Australia: Maybe an hour at the longest but that included the BBQ. It was maybe 20 minutes in the line.

Usually I vote early and have no wait.

 

[Kuribo’s Shoe]

10-20 minutes. Usually it's 5. Chicago here.

 

[Late Flag]

American. Probably about 10 minutes.

 

[DeltaRed]

UK: 5 minutes maybe

 

[KillstealWolf]

We have a voting poll both in the center of our village, it's about a 3 minute walk to get there, and you can often just walk in and out and be done. 30 seconds tops.

 

[Sunster]

2016 elections and maybe it was 20 minutes total in St Pete, FL

 

[Smylie]

About 75 minutes in line voting for Obama in 2008 in Northern Virginia.

 

[jonathanp]

10-20 minutes. Usually it's 5. Chicago here.

Click to shrink...

Same for me. Although when I did early voting for Obama's first run it took a good hour.

 

[El_Mau]

10-15 minutes in Mexico or less if there are not many people

 

[vypek]

American. Probably 10 minutes or 15 at the most

 

[bananab]

I don't remember the duration but I do remember the line around the block in 08 for me.

 

[Turrican2]

Germany - Peak Time around 5 Minutes

 

[CreepingFear]

American. Probably 15 minutes at most, if any longer, it was because I got there before poll opening.

 

[dragonbane]

The longest was around 5 minutes in Berlin, Germany. Usually less than 1 minute aka instantly. But we can also vote by mail so sometimes I do that too. Fuck me if I see people actually waiting in line for this in America lol

 

[enanogrande]

Venezuela - you'll be waiting 2+ hours at my voting center pretty much the whole day. I personally make it a point to get there at the crack of dawn before the center opens, end up spending about an hour total between waiting for them to open and voting, but it's much preferable to rolling the dice later in the day. You always hear people that get to the voting center at noon and face 4+ hours wait, fuck that noise.

 

[emilioasis]

5-10 minutes here in Chile.

My designated location has a majority of senior citizens, and they vote super early. So if I go around 2:00 pm there´s almost no line.

 

[____]

5 mins maybe in Miami, FL.

 

[Lifendz]

I've voted in Florida and NYC and with both it's been less than 20 minutes. Although it was infinitely more intimidating in FL because of the armed Sheriff officer that was present.

 

[nanskee]

Canada. Something like 5 minutes

 

[Binabik15]

Voting in-person usually took me ~30 mins if you include walking to and from the polling station. Germany.

 

[Deleted member 4212]

America - 20 minutes. It was in the last midterms after Trump was elected, big turnout in my area for that one.

 

[Noodle]

A whole minute.

 

[gardfish]

Longest time was maybe 15-20 minutes in the 2012 election--was in college in a big college town in Massachusetts at the time, so there was a pretty huge line, but it went quickly. Every time since it hasn't been more than a few minutes in New Jersey or New York.

 

[Zyrokai]

Probably 15 minutes on my Election Day 2016 vote at my normal precinct. Ohio here. Elections here aren't very chaotic thankfully. We just need more early voting locations for the populous counties..

 

[GoldenEye 007]

I became voting age in Florida's time for the 2006 mid-term election. Longest I had ever waited there was 0 min because they have no excuse absentee ballots.

I moved to Texas a few years ago and I had no choice but to go to a physical location. Living in the Dallas area, I've probably had to wait no more than 10min for every election. And really just one was a wait. The rest I was able to walk up and vote immediately.

We'll see this year. Texas is usually a non-voting state with terribly low turnout.

 

[JosephManderley]

About 10 minutes in the UK 1997 General Election. (Blair landslide win)

It was the first time I voted. Usually I am in and out without having to wait at all....

 

[kirby_fox]

US here. Fifteen maybe twenty minutes. I think I went at a peak time. I've been early voting since I could and it's been 5 to ten minutes.

 

[El_TigroX]

American: 2016, there was a line around the block at 6 a.m. when it opened. Even then... it was less than an hour and I was out.

 

[mikhailguy]

US (South FL)

Longest was about an hour and a half in line in Broward County. Plenty of time to get pissed off.

 

[Proteus]

Canada - 15 minutes.

 

[adj_noun]

15 seconds?

Maybe 20?

I've never timed the walk to the mailbox before.

 

[Mr. Poolman]

Costa Rica.
I've waited around 3 minutes.
Everyone votes over here and elections are done on a Sunday among what is called "voting party". Yeah, we celebrate our elections.

 

[Kyuuji]

UK - only a handful of minutes if there's a wait at all.

 

[Euan_1981]

Uk here, never more than 5 mins.