For those who voted already, how long did it take? For me it was a total of 1 1/2 hrs. Luckily though , the weather was ok, and I chatted the whole time in line. So, it wasn't too bad.

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 10:38 am:

Took Gary and me about 5 minutes, but we voted 3 weeks ago, at the city clerk's office. I haven't been out and about yet, to see if there are lines, yet.

By Colette on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 10:39 am:

About 10 minutes from pulling in the parking spot to pulling out. The clerk told me that 1/4 of our registered voters had voted by 9am.

By Vicki on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 10:43 am:

I was there for about an hour. We vote at a church and they had cookies, juice and coffee out so it was actually nice. LOL Drank coffee and chatted with people.

By Marcia on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 11:01 am:

They were talking about your wait lines for voting on our radio show this morning. I'm not exactly sure of how you're set up to have to wait such crazy times. (I've heard some people wait several hours in line) We have polling stations at every school in our town, as well as probably some churches and the community centres. I have never had to wait longer than for the person who is ahead of me in the booth already. I can't imagine your wait!

By Tarable on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 11:07 am:

I was there from 7:20 until 8 so about 40 min total and it took me about 5 min to verify who i was and actually fill out the ballot (it was long).

The town I live in didn't have any of the polling places in schools this year because of the "security risk". I liked going to a church better it was less confusing.

By Kernkate on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 11:23 am:

From my car until I was done probably about 20 minutes.
It would have been quicker if we would get rid of those paper ballots...
We are still in the stone age here!!!

By Bellajoe on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 11:31 am:

it took about 40 minutes from the time I walked in the to when I walked out. Not to bad.
The line was much longer when I left.

My dh was the first in line this morning. He got there about 1/2 hour before they opened. So he could vote then get to work.

By Kaye on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 11:57 am:

It took me about 30-40 mintues also. Polls opened at 7, I was there at 7:!0. We voted at a local school.

By Happynerdmom on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 12:06 pm:

DH voted before work (got there around 7 AM) and waited 1 1/2 hours. I voted about 11:00 and was in and out in 15 minutes.

By Annie2 on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 12:36 pm:

In and out, about ten minutes. I took one of my dds with me and let her fill out the ballot with me. She was given a sticker, too!

By Breann on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 12:49 pm:

We voted last week, and it took about 40 minutes.

By Brandy on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 01:44 pm:

took about 25 minutes = ) yay

By Ginny~moderator on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 01:55 pm:

Took me about 25-30 minutes. Two divisions vote at the Fire House which is our polling place, and when I got there at 7:45, about 100 people were standing in line between the two. I heard on our local news radio that at 7:00 a.m., when Pennsylvania's polls open, there were lines of up to 150 at polling places in Philadelphia. One of the lawyers here was in line for 1-1/2 hours.

By Dandjmom on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 02:36 pm:

I get off work at 4 and should make it there around 4:45. So I'm hoping tht everyone has made it out earlier by then.so I'll post my time tomorrow.

By Kate on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 03:47 pm:

Five minutes from parking lot back to parking lot at 3:30 this afternoon.

By Dana on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 04:12 pm:

Not long at all. We walked in, went straight to the sign in and off to a booth with several to choose from.

I liked our new system. You bubbled in your choice (plenty big for reading everything and well spaced so no confusion). Then you let the computer eat your very large ballot. It counts it on the computer and then stores the paper piece underneath for "paper trail"

By Dana on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 04:14 pm:

I forgot to say a very large percentage of our local areas (the Tampa Bay area, so really big) participated in early voting already. I was expecting a long line if I went by the news reports and video. It looks like record turn out in the prodominently black voting precints. Those are the ones that they were showing on all the channels. HUGE HUGE LINES, all day long today at those precints.

By Cat on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 04:17 pm:

Dh and I are going tonight at 5 after my last kiddo goes home. Hopefully we won't have to wait long (or outside since it's CHILLY today!). We vote at our local elementary school. That's where we're assigned. All the local schools (4 more within 5 miles of us) are voting spots, so hopefully most of the other people assigned to ours have already voted. I guess we'll find out.

By Tonya on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 04:37 pm:

It took me a total of 2hrs from parking and getting back into the car. 5 minutes to sign in and vote the rest was standing in line.

By Reds9298 on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 04:39 pm:

I didn't go until around 10:45am. I waited about 3 minutes in line, but we live in a very small town. Our ballot was so simple and totally computerized. Just push to select each choice and then one final button to cast your ballot. It was very user friendly.

By Enchens on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 04:39 pm:

I voted in our town about 1130 this morning. It took all of 10 minutes from start to finish. It helps a lot if you already have your choices set up. Quite a few people were reading their mailers in line.

By Karen~admin on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 07:14 pm:

We arrived @ 0545, 15 minutes before the polls actually opened, since we knew from experience that many/most people in our immediate area try to vote on the way to work or on the way home from work. There were probably about 20 people already ahead of us in line. They opened the doors promptly at 0600, and we were gone by 0615, so there for a total of 30 minutes.

Later on, Jen was taking me to run errands, and she still had to vote. We left around 10:30, there were 4 people ahead of her, and we were there for less than 10 minutes.

I know there were numerous locations throughout the metro N.O. area, depending on the time of day, where wait times in lines were several hours. UGH!

By Debbie on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 07:27 pm:

It took me about 45 minutes. I went at about 2pm today.

By Ilovetom on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 07:32 pm:

5 minutes. I loved it- our Weekly Reader was on voting and so I told my preschoolers to go with your parents to vote. I saw 2 of them in there.

By Cat on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 07:37 pm:

We're back. Thirty minutes from the time we left the house until we got home. It's a 5 minute drive each way.

By Dana on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 07:54 pm:

Looks like many areas had high early voting this year.

There was an absolutely outrageous line at Univ of South FL tonight, and it just kept getting bigger as the broadcast aired. WOW! It was going from inside the building to around the building.

By Crystal915 on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 10:03 pm:

I voted early last week, the wait was about 45 minutes (one of the shorter times according to local news) to get in to the polls, and then it took me an additional 30 or so to get my ballot bec of an ID issue, the people didn't know the proper process for the provisional ballots. (This was the Supervisor of Elections office, too... if they don't know what to do, who does?!) All said, we were out of there in under 2 hours, but we were lucky, because the news showed really long wait all week. There were lines out the door before the polls opened at 0700 today!

By Bea on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 - 11:59 pm:

I parked 10 feet from the door and voted in 5 minutes. I got there about 9:15 a.m.

By Imamommyx4 on Wednesday, November 5, 2008 - 12:42 am:

I got in at about 9:45 am and was out by 10 am

By Jackie on Wednesday, November 5, 2008 - 01:07 am:

I wonder why my area took so long? I live in Va beach, not a small city LOL...

By Karen~admin on Wednesday, November 5, 2008 - 07:49 am:

Jackie, I heard on my local news yesterday that there were problems in Virginia with voting due to *rain, wet hands touching the machines and human error that caused hours-long delays*. Not sure exactly what it means, but that was the specific verbage used on the news.

By Bea on Wednesday, November 5, 2008 - 09:36 am:

The poll workers, around here in Virginia, decided to bring the paper ballots to the cars of some elderly and infirm, because of the long lines and weather. The ballads got wet in the heavy rain yesterday. They either had to wait for them to dry, or destroy the first ballot, and go back out to the voter, while trying to keep a new ballot dry.

By Jackie on Wednesday, November 5, 2008 - 09:55 am:

Yes, certain polling places there were longer waits due to the rain and the machines. The polling place I went too didnt have these problems. I think I just went at a bad time. I thought going around 8;45am would be better then later in the afternoon. My husband went at 2pm and only waited 45 minutes total, I waited 1 1/2 hrs.No big deal, I had a good time talking to the people around me.