# Poll watching: how long are the lines at your poll? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 2, 2004, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-watching-how-long-are-the-lines-at-your-poll/272521 "2004-11-02T12:22:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Mal\_Adroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@Mal\_Adroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mal_Adroit)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-watching-how-long-are-the-lines-at-your-poll/272521/101 "2004-11-02T23:18:11Z")
I’m both relieved and a little disappointed to report virtually no line whatsoever at 5:15 P.M. in my corner of nort’east PA. I was pumped for a good long democratic wait! ---
**Author:** ![Taran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Taran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taran)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-watching-how-long-are-the-lines-at-your-poll/272521/102 "2004-11-02T23:45:51Z")
No wait whatsoever at 5:45 in central Pittsburgh. Just as well; it’s raining. ---
**Author:** ![drewbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drewbert/32/15890_2.png) [@drewbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewbert)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-watching-how-long-are-the-lines-at-your-poll/272521/103 "2004-11-03T00:01:17Z")
Got to my poll at 5:40pm. I was out again in less than 3 minutes. Guessing (hoping) that everybody got there earlier. But hey, it’s a smallish district anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-watching-how-long-are-the-lines-at-your-poll/272521/104 "2004-11-03T00:09:48Z")
Wow! I have never had to wait in line at all to vote. But then, I voted this year, as I usually do, in mid-afternoon. ---
**Author:** ![Muerte\_Viscosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Muerte\_Viscosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muerte_Viscosa)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-watching-how-long-are-the-lines-at-your-poll/272521/105 "2004-11-03T00:09:54Z")
I voted around 11 AM. There were 5 or 6 people ahead of me to have their registration checked, and the other district tables had 1 or 2 people each. I guess I missed a huge morning rush though, because I was number 470 or so for the machine. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-watching-how-long-are-the-lines-at-your-poll/272521/106 "2004-11-03T00:12:47Z")
I’ve never seen lines ike this in 15 years of living in 90% democratic DC, and this was between 2-3pm which is supposed to be the slow time. Usually I walk in, vote and walk out with almost no waiting. This time it took me almost an hour. ---
**Author:** ![Elvez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@Elvez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elvez)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-watching-how-long-are-the-lines-at-your-poll/272521/107 "2004-11-03T00:24:02Z")
I live in a small-ish town in Idaho. I voted at lunch and there was no line for my precinct. I was done in about 5 minutes. Our ballot was incredibly easy. You take a punch card, slide it into a little slot that’s under a little booklet fixed to the table. The booklet has all the candidates and issues on each page, and you puch a little pin through the hole next to the candidate you want to vote for. Bush was on line 8, Kerry was on line 11. There were no candidates in between. You’d have to be a serious dunce to vote for the wrong guy here… ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-watching-how-long-are-the-lines-at-your-poll/272521/108 "2004-11-03T00:47:40Z")
The news is reporting record voter turnout; nationwide it could be over 60% ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-watching-how-long-are-the-lines-at-your-poll/272521/109 "2004-11-03T00:48:38Z")
I went in around 2 pm and there was no line at all. I found my district, signed my name and voted in about three minutes. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-watching-how-long-are-the-lines-at-your-poll/272521/110 "2004-11-03T01:07:08Z")
in philly town. i bought some munchkins on the way home expecting a huge line of hungry people. i got to the poll at 5:15 pm. there were 2 people in the room. the guy signed in and went to the machine, the woman was at the wrong polling place. while they looked for where she should go; i got signed in, gave them the bucket of munchkins, and went to the machine. less than 5 minutes all told. i miss the ka chunga curtain as well. fighting your way out of the curtain does have the same (french phrase here) as the ka chunga curtain ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-watching-how-long-are-the-lines-at-your-poll/272521/111 "2004-11-03T01:07:16Z")
Took me roughly two hours to get from the parking lot to the inside a polling booth. Took me one minute to actually vote my ballot’s twenty-something items. Overall I saw some great acts of kindness with people ceding seats to older voters, pregnant voters and one old man in crutches. One extremely frustrated and tearful black woman was cursing --“I can’t take this! Y’all don’t have me on the damn lists!” A poll worker intercepted her as she was storming out and managed to talk her into coming back inside to get her a provisional ballot. Saw lots of kids voting. If this working class precinct in Columbus is any indication of how determined people are statewide, Bush will get an awful surprise regarding Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![Sassy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@Sassy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sassy)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-watching-how-long-are-the-lines-at-your-poll/272521/112 "2004-11-03T01:40:06Z")
I’m in the heart of the city, almost downtown. I think they were prepared - there were 8 booths, when 4 is usual. All of the booths were full when I got there, so about a 15 minute wait. I got there about 4:30 (left work a little early) and there was a steady stream of people while I was there - always 3 or 4 in line. Much different from the previous breezing in and out 🙂 Hearing the poll workers talking, it’s been steady there all day, in a very mixed precinct. We’re on the border of Chinatown, with a mostly elderly population, and Nob Hill where the 30ish hipsters live (I am neither of these.) The poll workers and the voters reflected that mix nicely. I was glad to see it busy, as SF tends to think our vote doesn’t matter, and I disagree! ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-watching-how-long-are-the-lines-at-your-poll/272521/113 "2004-11-03T01:41:30Z")
We went at 4. We waited about 2 minutes; which is longer than it took me to vote, actually. Its kindof sad when you KNOW your candidate won’t win, but… ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-watching-how-long-are-the-lines-at-your-poll/272521/114 "2004-11-03T03:44:43Z")
> [@sunfish](#): > > There was a steady stream of people going in to my polling place to vote around 9:15, but it didn’t look like more than a few minutes wait for anyone, plus this location handles several election districts which AFAIK aren’t huge. I’m sure traffic will pick up again after work. Voting was a breeze on our old mechanical monsters… nothing quite like that satisfying _thunk_ when you pull the lever back and your votes are recorded. 😃 > > I did meet **Mehitabel** , who is on the job there as a poll worker. She said that for her district (one of six or so in the building), about 75 people had shown up by 9:30 AM, compared to about 40 people _all day_ during the September primaries. I’m really heartened by the numbers of people coming out to vote! Hey, sweetie, thanks for the report! Great meeting you again and thanks for the tea! Just made it home (10:05 pm). We had 321 voters total–the previous record when I was there was 232, but it was pretty good turnout considering we have 510 eligible voters in our electoral district (and there are still plenty of dead and moved-to-California-in-1990 people in our voter’s list). There were absolutely no lines outside. Ever, at any time of day. No lines inside that reached further than the opposite wall from our table, with about ten people in it. The longest anybody had to wait, AFAICT, was twenty minutes, and the vasy majority much less than that. It helps, I think, that our machines are pretty good, with none of them at all breaking down and therefore no emergency ballots. We also had the ballots on the wall in poster form so people could study them before they got into the booth, etc. so most people didn’t take very long in there. We had benches for them to sit on and water fountains and bathrooms right there, and plenty of frail, elderly and handicapped people sauntered to the booths. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-watching-how-long-are-the-lines-at-your-poll/272521/115 "2004-11-03T03:47:09Z")
Just one thing: In New York City we are simple trusting folk; we don’t ask for any ID at all except for a few voters who have registered thisclose to the deadline. We also have ‘door officers’ who guide the voters to the right table; and I had made nice big colorful numbers for each table. So very few of the reasons for delays that some other states had existed here. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-watching-how-long-are-the-lines-at-your-poll/272521/116 "2004-11-03T05:03:25Z")
Voter turnout has been very high, but there aren’t any delays at my polling place in rural Montana. My wife and I signed in, pulled out our pre-filled sample ballots, votes, and got out with no wait at all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-watching-how-long-are-the-lines-at-your-poll/272521.md?page=5)