I just got back from voting about an hour ago, at the same place I’ve voted for the past 8 years. Every other time I’ve voted (every two years, plus a few primaries), including the Presidential years, I’ve been in and out, with maybe one other voter in the room with me at a time.
Today, the line was down the hall and back and halfway down the stairs, and even longer when I left. They had the same number of booths and scanners that they usually have, but they were all in use. And a lot of folks in the line seemed to be first-time voters, or at least first time in a while. And the poll workers said it’d been like that all day.
I live in an extremely blue area. If turnout was this high, it’s an excellent sign.
Hereabouts, I was first in line to vote in person this morning; by the time things were opened up, the line behind me was pretty danged long compared to previous years — which I take to mean that folks are plenty motivated.
Ohio. I think my municipality has the same number of polling places it always had, but even if not, everyone there would have been from the same city, which is all extremely blue. And literally the property next door is also a polling place (I was at City Hall; the next lot is a school).
My wife went to vote at 7am and said it was pretty busy and she was #51. I went at 2:45pm and was #315. There were a couple other voters but no line and I was in and out pretty swiftly.
Really uneventful. There were signs about no electioneering and I didn’t see any vigilante poll watchers, protesters or other n’er-do-wells. Blue county but I assume my district is either competitive or even right-leaning.
A Republican trick is to base the number of polling places on area size rather than population, meaning city precincts have longer lines than rural ones.
We voted at 9:00 AM and there was no line. Except at the end when the ballot reading machine jammed and we got to watch the supervisor try to fix it. He had a bunch of keys and was having a hard time getting it open. He was able to open a slot in the machine where we could put them in
and they promised to count our ballots once the machine was back up and running.
About 5 minutes from when I took off my bike helmet to when I put it on (polling place is a few blocks — could easily be walked to) there were 5 to 10 other voters there, no wait to get ballot. Instead of signing The Big Book of Voters ™, the poll worker tapped in my name and verified my address and then I signed the slip that came out of the receipt printer.
Parking lot was full, but there was also youth hockey (poling place is in the lobby of an ice arena)
Polls opened here at 0700, and I stopped in on the way to work. With nobody in line that early, I was in the polling station and out within 20 minutes, and I was the 22nd voter they had at that point. I made it to work by 0800.
Tripler
This was only the second time in my life I voted in person.
I usually vote around 11 to 12 pm. (Never early morning, I think once I voted in late afternoon.) It’s been the same precinct although the polling place moved twice. For comparison, to the best of my recollection,
Election
Max’s voter #
polling place
2014 general
100-something
armory downtown
2016 presidential primary
don’t remember
armory downtown
2016 primary
under 100
library downtown
2016 general
100-something
library downtown
2018 primary
under 100
library downtown
2018 general
70-something
library downtown
2020 presidential primary
around 50
library downtown
2020 primary
like 14 or 15
library downtown
2020 general
70s or 80s
library downtown
2022 primary
110s
rec center next to a middle school pickup line
2022 general
321
rec center next to a middle school pickup line
I definitely think this most recent polling location enables more people to vote as parents are already lined up in the driveway to drop off and pick their kids up from school.
This was the second time I’ve ever waited in line to vote.
I can’t go year to year because there were a lot of polling places that closed in 2020 and didn’t come back this year, but the county board of elections says they estimate a final turnout of 57%, which is phenomenal for a non-Presidential election.
I live in Chicago (a decidedly “blue” city and big enough to make the state blue) and, like the OP, in the past I walked in and out with no fuss, no lines.
Today there were lines. Not huge lines but it meant taking 30+ minutes to get to a voting booth as opposed to 2-3 minutes in the past. I think the poll workers could been a bit more efficient but it’s not an easy job and they deserve some slack.
Everyone was polite. There was no trouble or anyone fussing that I saw at all (I wouldn’t expect there to be where I live…downtown and a very diverse voting group by age and race).
As an aside a young man was in front of me (I’d guess 18-22) to cast his ballot into the machine which rejected it because it could not read his marks. He had put an “X” in each circle but the voting machine needed them to be colored in to read it. I felt so bad for him. The ballot was long and he had to do it all over again (or just leave…I do not know what he chose to do). Not a good first voting experience.
I voted in person this morning. It was fairly early and I was still voter #80. My county so far has gone solidly for Fetterman, which surprises me because it is also represented by Scott Perry.
This has been a widely reported issue in Maricopa County. The thing that I think is odd is that the machines the ninjas got their hands on have been destroyed and taxpayers forked out a whole bunch more money to buy new ones. The new ones were used during the last election and performed perfectly.
I’m now hearing that the printers weren’t printing the ballets dark enough for the tabulators but it doesn’t matter at this point. The election has been stolen again. Or at least that is what we will be hearing until 2024. Or longer.