There was a short line when I went to vote, which is typical in a presidential election year where I lived. (Elections other years there’s either an even shorter line or no line at all)
Yeah, as I approached the booths there were “no cell phones” signs posted on them, so I tucked it in my pocket then. I still had the phone out within the room proper, just not within easy take-pic-of-someone-else’s-ballot range.
How long does the German ballot tend to be? That is, how many offices, ballot questions, etc. might one typically encounter?
Maybe I’m trading in stereotypes here, but I am under the impression that German people take great pride in their efficiency. If that’s the case, then the entire process would tend to go smoother than it does here, where efficiency can take a back seat to any number of other values, such as neighborhood friendliness, etc… I was in a line of about 20 people this morning, and didn’t get out for about 40 minutes. Yes, two separate ballots slowed things down (one regular office ballot and one special one for judge retention), but there was a lot of time spent in looking up names, moving to the next station for someone to talk to you about the types of voting you could use - electronic or paper - and some general (quite personable) conversation and inefficiency.
Just to follow up on my post from this morning, once again today I had no wait at all. I walked in, gave my name and address, picked up a ballot, and voted. I was done in a couple of minutes. I turned in my ballot and walked out. No more than five minutes from start to finish.
No ballot questions at all. Usually only one election at a time, maybe two. There are states (Länder) where the voting system on the local level is somewhat complicated.
I remember the 2004 election…my Mom called me and asked if I had to wait in line…my response was “there was one person in front of me when I went to sign in, but when I got to the booth it was open”.
That was the first year I became aware of the outrageous lines to vote in some locations…my friends in PA and family in NC seem to accept 2-3 hour waits as status quo.
Today was typical…there were 3 people in front of me when I went to sign in, no wait at all for the “booth” ( the little privacy stations for marking ballots ) and 1 person in front of me when I went to the scanner.
My polling place serves several election districts…one of those seemed to have a 20 person line ( I think it’s the largest district ) but the others were pretty wide open.
I was suprised at how long it took to sign in the 3 voters in front of me…I knew the first one was trouble when she pulled up a chair and sat down during the process. Not sure what took so long with the others, none of them seemed to be using provisional ballots.
Still I shouldn’t complain, I was in and out in 10 minutes.
Wait, no ballot questions at all? Just one or two candidates? Do I understand that correctly?
On my ballot this morning I was asked to vote for:
President/Vice President
U.S. Senator
U.S. Representative
State Governor
State Lieutenant Governor (in my state, Gov./Lt. Gov are separate tickets)
State Attorney General
State Treasurer
State Secretary of State
State Auditor
State Senator (in my district, he was unopposed, but still a ballot spot)
State Representative
Whether to retain 10 judges, each a separate line on the ballot
Six state constitutional amendments, tax increases or bond issues.
That’s a total of 27 offices or issues I had to choose among, and you’ll notice there are no municipal offices on the ballot at all. And, as other posters have noted, some jurisdictions have many, many more.
If the average German ballot only has one or two items on it, it’s not realistic to compare voting to a typical U.S. election.
I assume its one member if the national parliament and one member of the state parliament.
That’s correct. There are elections on the (a) Federal (b) State and (c) local level.
Typically, there are two votes on every level, one for an individual candidate, one for a party, but there is rarely more than one election held on a single election day.
Bottom line: the system is much more simple.
Indeed. My ballot had:
U.S. President / Vice-President
U.S. Representative (this is the one biennial election in three when neither of our Senatorial seats is up for election)
State Senator
State Representative
Water Reclamation District Commissioner (three seats)
Three other county posts
Twenty judges (filling vacancies, most have two candidates for the seat)
Fifty-eight sitting judges seeking retention (yes/no votes on each)
One ballot initiative (a proposed change to the state constitution)
That’s 89 different votes to be made. Now, not everyone makes every vote (I’m sure some people cast their vote for president, and ignore the rest of the ballot), but it makes for a long ballot, and it explains why a lot of voters spend a long while in the booth.
How many times a year do you need to go to the polls?
That’s insane. I wasn’t aware of that.
In light of this, I’d like to rephrase my original question:
Why are the lines at polling places in the US so short?
Once every two, maybe three years. The schedule isn’t as fixed as in the US.
In SC, polling places are open 7 to 7, and they are usually in schools and firestations. I was going to vote when the places first open for voting, but heard on the news that lines were already long. I went around 9:30 and the line snaked all inside the high school, so I went for an hour run and then returned to vote, and met someone I know who just voted. It took him 1 3/4 hours to vote. It took me 1 3/4 hours also.
My precinct for this election was not the only precinct at that place. It may have included four precincts. Once I got to the table with the volunteers, it took no time at all. It’s not the volunteers’ fault. In addition to the president and vice president, we had some state persons to vote for, some county persons, and even the local town has some offices to fill. In addition, there was a state constitutional amendment (so that the governor and lt. gov. would be from the same party). IMHO, some delay is caused by voters who were ill prepared. They did not know not only the candidates but the proposed amendment to the constitution, and took an inordinate amount of time voting. (It took me less than a minute.)
So how long are terms of office? If each office gets its own election, and you only have to vote once every 2 years, does that mean everyone gets 6 years in office?
no line or waiting at my polling place today, in and out in 20 min.
The term is usually 4 or 5 years. The terms for Federal, State and local parliaments don’t run concurrently. Terms can be cut short for various reasons.
We don’t vote directly for individual officials (except on the local level). The heads of government on the Federal level (chancellor) and on the State level (minister president, prime minister) are elected by the parliaments on the respective level.
Three people ahead of me, 5 minutes to get my ballot. Whole process was 12 min, 47 seconds (from leaving my car to returning to my car)
Had 2 pages (big piece of paper) -
here is my ballot (I fudged my address)
Brian
Well, you Germans are known for your efficiency.
I realize you had a smilie at the end, but treating this as a serious question:
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Some people such as myself do our research and make our decision before we go to the polls. It’s not that difficult to get either a sample ballot or list of candidates appearing on your ballot well in advance of the election. With the internet, it’s much easier to research candidates than when I first started voting 30 years ago. Since all I have to do is check off my selections rather than pondering each candidate I’m in and out pretty fast.
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You can vote “straight party”, meaning you check one box to choose all the candidates of one party.
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You are not obligated to vote on everything
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Most places I’ve voted give you an option to vote just on the presidential race and skip all the other if you choose to do so.
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Early and absentee voting is becoming more and more common, reducing the number who actually have to go to the polling places on election day.
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A lot of Americans don’t bother to vote at all.