Why are there such big queues to vote in U.S. elections

[kingprawntikka]

I live in a village in the U.K, I have also lived in towns. I have never had to queue to vote. In my village there are three polling stations in the local schools or library. I appreciate America is a huge country but i can't understand why there are so few polling stations that people must queue so long to cast their vote. On the news last night people who were casting their vote early had queued for four and a half hours!!
Who can spare all that time to stand in a queue? Does anyone know why it is like that?

well, apparently the voting form in california is 43 pages long: they are not only voting for president, but governor, senator and on individual issues. That can't help!

If I could vote in that particular election I would make the time to queue up to vote, regardless of how long it took. We had to queue up here for our elections, not nearly so long mind!

well i at least part if not all of the reason is that the turn-out is going to be incredibly high-certainly compared to any elections we have here.

i think it's great that people can be bothered to queue- i couldn't actually see that happening here...

I think there are far fewer polling stations here (certainly in my area) than in the UK. And, as suey said, they are not only voting for president but numerous other more local ballots too.

We had early voting for 2 weeks here and people were queueing for over 2 hours. No-one could get a babysitter to watch their children when they went to vote because they were in such high demand.

I am glad that so many people are going out of their way to vote. Fingers crossed for a good result.

Oh I'm glad to see so many people voting , i just think it must be terribly difficult to get child care etc, Do you get time off work to vote or are people having to use up holiday leave?

I hae never stood in a particularly long queue to vote in the states. I guess they happen when there is an unexpected large turnout. Or maybe not enouf election judges have volunteered. Or it might just be a case of the time of day. Lunch hour, right after work, before work. I don't know. I voted absentee which is pretty hassle free.

They are talking about a 90% or over turnout - which is unheard of. More importantly, they are worried they don't have enough ballot papers....(????)

That's funny, cause they always send me two. International mail. What a waste. Can't work out why they do that.

Actually it's not funny. I sooooooo want the news (good or bad) broken to me by the time I get up tomorrow.

on the news today it said some people were queing for 3 hours

Why is there so much voting in one ballot? Why do they have to vote on things like individual issues in a 'general election'? It just seems to complicate things so much. Why can't they do that separately.

(slinks away embarrassed by ignorance of US politics)

I imagine it's about cost, Jux. Why pay to hold two elections when you can hold one. And what would be the impact of two separate elections on voter turnout?

It must be very very difficult to vote if you are paid for the work you do and can't afford to take the time off.

Interesting reading about some of the problems with voting here cnn

I wondered about this too. Would I stand in a queue on a November evening, possibly in the rain, for four or five hours? I'd like to think I would but I'm not certain.

Well done to the Americans on their turn out.

Absolutely

Obama is in the process of voting atm. Taken him over 10 mins to fill out his paper. Granted he seemed relaxed and chatty to his daughter but still - tis a long time.

Did think his little girl was going to have the voting table over at one point the way she was swinging on it