I was afraid I may spend a few hours at the polls on tuesday so I voted early. It took about 40 minutes of waiting in line. Is this normal, all my info on voting comes from TV and on TV there are never lines.
On another note I love the courthouse. Its alot of fun watching cops and prosecutors talk while public defenders talk to their clients. I could watch that stuff all day, great stuff.
Wow. You guys need to sort out that system. Last time I voted, it took five minutes, but that included me and my mum trying to work out if we knew any of the BNP candidates (and yes, she’d taught a child of one of them).
There are many, many things our government needs to sort out.
And this was for voting early. We have cards you fill in with pencil so it takes each person about 5 minutes to vote and there are only 6 booths to vote in.
It’s like McDonald’s. They serve you fast but if there’s a lot of people there you still have to wait.
I live in Houston, TX and the lines for early voting are about an hour long virtually everywhere you go. I will be the lone Democrat working at my precinct as an election judge November 2nd, and I sincerely hope we’re busy all day so I don’t have to listen to my fellow poll workers trying to convert me to Christianity. The Republican election judge has already invited me to her weirdo fundie church by email, and I’ve never even met her.
Um, anyway, lines are long but probably shorter than they will be on the Big Day. Give yourself plenty of time!
I vote at a local firehouse. I’ve had to wait maybe 5 minutes at most in any election. The actual voting, previously by flipping a lever, now electronically, takes about 1 minute at most, presuming you’ve decided before entering the booth.
Cardsfan and I both voted today and it took all of 5 minutes from the time we walked in the front door to the time we exited.
I hate to see the mad house of next week though.
Last November I had to wait about 45 minutes – there was a mayoral race that had a lot of people ready to pull some levers.
Usually the wait is five minutes or less. I usually go when I get home from work, around 6:00 or 6:30. I’m definitely going to take a book this time, though!
Only takes me 5-10 minutes, tops.
I voted early today and stood in line for just about an hour before even getting in the door. From there, I had to fill out an absentee ballot request (technically, that’s what the early vote is), wait for someone to call me back, verify my information, and give me a card to stick in the machine. That took about fifteen minutes total. It took me under five minutes to actually vote (on a touch-screen machine). Mr. Legend, my mother, and I got in line at 2:20 and were on our way home at 3:40.
I left the house about 1:30 and got back about 2:40. Subtracting the 10-minute drive from either end has me at about 50 minutes from arrival to departure. 45 of that was in line, and 5 was the intake, vote, depart procedure. They distributed to those of us in line small paper ballots and amendment explanation texts that we could fill out and take up to the machine with us. This sped our passage through the 12-screen-page ballots we have here in my county this year.
In the past, I haven’t voted early, and I’ve never waited more than 10 minutes to do it. This year, I had absolutely no intention of waiting in lines that are gonna probably be 2 - 3 hours long, so I went early. The worst part of the process was being surrounded by people bitching about waiting so long. C’mon, people – an hour every four years is just unmanageable, isn’t it?
I voted early on Tuesday here in Indianapolis at the city-county building. Took all of 15-20 minutes after walking through the door (and going through the metal detector).
I voted this morning and it took 10 minutes from the time I walked in the courthouse til I left. Normally I vote at a fire station a half mile from my house and vote before I go to work. It’s never taken more than 30 minutes. I decided to vote early because I had to be in Leesburg (the county seat) for something else a little while ago, so I decided to swing by the courthouse since I was right by it.
Let me go on record as saying, I love those touch screen voting machines. Push the little card in, the screen loads and from there it’s just touch touch touch til I’m done. Love it, love it, love it!
Record high levels of voting here in Tennessee, but I went in to early voting last week, & got in & out in 10 minutes.
Wow. I can’t believe it takes people so long! I don’t think it’s ever taken me more than 10 minutes from entrance of building to exit of building, voting in NY, PA, and NJ.
Of course, these days the voting process may take less than 2 minutes, but we’re in there for about 15 minutes while the grandmotherly polling place ladies coo over my son. We vote in every election, and it’s the same workers every time, so they always like to comment on how much he’s grown and all. 
It’s never taken me more than a few minutes from entrance to exit, but I’m voting in a new state this year, so I’m bringing a book, just in case.
Luckily my polling place is only a few blocks away (rather than an hour drive one way when I was still voting in Missouri).
Mr. Purl and I voted yesterday, it took about 20 minutes for both of us (at the Adams County DMV). There was a bit of a line, but it actually took a little less time than voting in the primary at our local polling place. We don’t have any of those fancy touch-screens-- we have paper ballots where you fill in an oval with a marker. It was fairly busy, and I heard the poll workers saying to someone that it had been about that busy since noon (we went at 4:30, they are open until 5).
No waiting lines in the last 8 years that I’ve lived at my current residence.
5 minutes each time when I have already know which numbers to punch/press. Includes the time spent on putting a “I voted” sticker on my shirt.
I forgot to add that our polling place is at a National Gaurd Armory with a big 'ol tank parked in front of the booths facing us inside the auditorium. Boffo neato.