Can someone please explain why Americans have to queue for several hours to vote? Do they have a shortage of ballot boxes or pencils or similar?

[Fillyjonk]

It has always confused me

Also, apparently, in many areas they HAVE to use electronic devices to vote which are manurfactured by a big Republican donor AND the inner workings of this machine are a trade secret (big }

honestly, from the outside American elections just seem so corrupt. They make our border-changing practices look quite reasonable.

there's over 30 things to vote for in some places. My Pennsylvania ballot was short, only 20 positions plus one referendum.

Lots of places don't have queues but there's no news in that.
Mostly it's because they want results quickly so they need machines which are counting the vote as it goes along - which are more complicated than just dropping your paper in a box.
And no-one wants to pay more taxes for more electorial workers.

My ballot was 4 folds, small print, and double-sided. But I was lucky, as we are either the one or one of the few states that are vote-by-mail, and all I had to do was walk across the street and drop it in several weeks ago.

If you'd had to go through the ballots like dooney said you'd have been a long time in the booth to. Seriously I'm going to need an extra degree to vote in a few years time. This is why many of my friends here go for the postal ballot. Can't say I blame them. It was a book here in CO.

Ah well - despite all the vote rigging, Obama still won

Though it is terribly ironic that despite all these dodgy practices, the US government still don't see the irony in criticising Zimbabwe for theirs.

Bit of an explaination here

I really admire the US people for queueing for hours to cast their vote. However, although I realise that they are not just voting for the president and congress, I also do not understand why they do not have more polling stations or more staff and machines. I never have to queue to vote at my local polling station. In fact, voting always takes me back in time because the pace of life seems so slow and everyone is so polite .

In the US, even the early voters seemed to have to wait in line for hours. Having said that, if I was eligible to vote in yesterday's election I would have happily queued.

I saw a picture in the times of the ballot - it has HUNDREDS of blooming names on it. People vote for water board officials or something. Even Michelle Obama took more htan 20minutes to vote.

In the last election here, I had to go to the local pub to vote. Can you imagine how great it would be for thier buisness if people had to que for 4 hours.

I've been wondering exactly the same thing. Never waited more than 5 minutes to vote.

Also, if there were such long queues in some areas with people waiting 4+ hours, did they all actually get to cast their vote before the polls closed?

It said on the news that if you were already in a queue when polling closed you would be able to cast your vote. No-one else would be able to join the end of a queue though.

Ah, thanks Madsometimes.

Crazy really that there apparently isn't money for more polling stations when you consider how much was spent on the entire campaign. I realise they're not funded by the candidates but still....

but its not that they are a long time in the booths. I can see that voting would take a long time

it is that no one seems to have realised that they would take a long time in the booths, given that they had all those pages of complex legal decisions to be made.

I mean, we had the same old back in 2001, iirc, and then we had the whole "well, who'd have thought it, people turning up to vote on election day, whatever next." to explain the queues. You'd have thought they'd have put two and two together this time...

but can I just say Americans, how impressed I am that you DID queue. It was bloody worth it, well done.

It depends on where you live. I was only there for 5 minutes and no one was in front of me.

The Californian ballot papers were unbelievable!!! The size of a small telephone directory
We web-chatted to a friend in San Francisco last night, just before she went off to vote, and she showed us- it has details of the people standing (were lots of polls beside presidential election) and details about what to do with the machines etc.
I cannot imagine the cost of getting those printed and distributed to each franchised person- must have been phenomenal!

DH drew a mock-up of an english ballot paper... and she had a good laugh!