Red town in a red county in a red state: I was in an out in five minutes. Nobody outside politiciking or intimidating or “observing” (mainly because it was pouring down rain). The election judges were polite and friendly, checked my ID, gave my ballot and my “I Voted” sticker, and I was on my way to work.
My polling place is at the fire department in a village of 500 people. My experience was the same as yours - in and out in five minutes. Everyone was polite and professional. Very red Ohio county, BTW.
Just one confused 91 year old asking loudly for help to mark his ballot straight ticket for republicans. Then he left his walker behind, and had issues at the tabulator. But he voted.
I voted early at the court house, last week. It was crowded. But the line clipped along.
One old coot was talking loudly on his phone, they had asked to turn off phones and keep the noise down at the door because a court case was going on up stairs.
So they had to speak to the guy. He wasn’t happy about it.
My DIL voted this morning after dropping the kids to school. She said no one else was there. But they had lines marked off as if they were expecting a crowd.
Small town. County seat.
Out here in the rural areas polls are spread far and wide in churches and old school buildings.
We usually go to the courthouse.
Rather the opposite: I was there at five-something in the morning, as were others: all of us patiently waiting for the doors to open at six so we could vote — and a worker decided, what the heck, let’s move things along by letting everyone in now.
(Which, moments later, prompted another worker to go a bit wide-eyed and explain to her that, er, no; you’re not supposed to expedite things quite so much. But those of us who’d been waiting out front simply waited inside until everything was ready to go at six as planned, and we cast our votes and, uh, got our stickers, is all, right on time.)
It was pleasant and civil, I was pleased to see so many new citizens and new young voters voting for the first time.
I could have lived without the MAGA gun fetishist who thought we five women working to ensure everyone’s rights deserved being threatened and intimidated because he wasn’t allowed to wear his guns into the polling place. Hostile and machismo at its worst. I’m still shaken but unbowed.
I always run to vote, this allows me to come in across the ball fields instead of thru the parking lot which means I don’t get lots of sample ballotstrash handed to me. I looked, my run time & my elapsed time differed by 5:09, measured from when I crossed the driveway to walk in, sign in, vote, & back out across the driveway again until I started the Garmin again.
There was definitely shenanigans going on, but the same shenanigans that have apparently been going on there during previous elections, nothing new based on who we were voting for. I am pissed about it.