Question for Americans

[pyat]

Why are voting lines in the U.S. so long? I'm reading about six hour waits in some early voting places, and I seem to recall tales of "lines around the block" in the last election. Are there only a small number of voting stations?

I've never heard anyone up here complain about waiting in line to vote - or, if they did it was a matter of "It took me 15 minutes to get to the polling station! What a mad house!" sort of thing.

Do we do things differently, or is this just a matter of freak incidents getting media attention?

Comments

[zorinlynx.livejournal.com]

It has a lot to do with early voting. Lots of people are voting early this year, so the lines are very long.

Actual election day has about 20 times as many polling places as early voting, so the wait should be significantly less despite the higher turnout.

I'm voting tomorrow morning myself; driving straight to the polling place and from there to work.