Early voting has started in the US Presidential elections and one article that caught my eye today was regarding the waiting times to vote.
AOC criticises ‘unacceptable’ lines at New York polling stations after waiting two hours to cast ballot.
This doesn't appear to be solely an issue with early voting or the Covid Pandemic as FiveThirtyEight have documented wait time over an hour for 15% to 20% of votes and much longer for some.
Some people, like Donna Thompson, 59, told us that a long line or complicated voting system is something that’s just baked into the process for them. “I’m going to have to take time off work to go get in line, because my job doesn’t give me time off to vote,” she said, adding that she’s had to wait five or six hours in past elections.
Why are there such long waits? In the UK I don't think I've ever waited more than a handful of minutes and even news reports of queues are usually at closing time. In 2019 the Independent's article about long waits to vote in the general election covered experiences of 20 and 35 minutes.