The auditorium or my daughters’ grade school, in Silver Lake, is a polling location. The auditorium has 300 seats and at 7:30 AM almost all the seats were taken by people waiting to vote!!!
During the ½ hour we (my daughter, about 9 of her school mates and me) hung out outside the auditorium (and the children escorted would be voters in and thanked those who had voted for doing so- in 4 languages I might add) we noticed that EVERY one was up beat and excited about this election. Of course, some who showed up decided to leave and come back in the afternoon, others joked about needing coffee.

Unbelievable. After years of apathy at the polls and just walking up to vote I had to wait in line. My polling place is in the Gables Retirement Home at Foothill and Ivy here in Monrovia. My line took 35 minutes to get my ballot. They had us winding through a meeting room, hallway and into their parking structure.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/frazgo/3002297377/

Whatever the outcome I don’t think anyone can blame it on voter apathy. Certainly whatever the outcome the country will remain divided and pointing fingers saying “not my fault”.

frazgo, like you I have never had to wait in line to vote until today. I waited about 30mins at Oxnard Street Elementary in North Hollywood. The line went down the block. Everyone was patient and most people spent the time in line reading, or chatting with people in line.

Make sure to take your Sample Ballot, my polling place has 2 precincts voting and the Sample Ballot indicates which table to check-in at. This cut my wait in line from 1hr to 30mins, since there was a short line at the table I checked-in at. The guy in front of me did not have his Sample Ballot with him so he was still in line after I finished voting.

The lady in line behind of me was a 1st time voter, I can only imagine how special this election must be for her!

Vote!

My neighborhood garage/polling place had about a 1/2 hour wait. My husband got there at 6:55 and was just voting at 7:30 when I arrived. I had to get to work, so I chatted with him and some other neighbors for a few minutes, then left. I know legally I could have stayed and voted and not been penalized at work, but since I’m the boss, I had things to do early! But I’m leaving early to go back and vote later. So exciting!

9:45am, 80+ people in line at SM Virginia Ave park. Very diverse crowd, even more than I expected.

Plummer Park in West Hollywood had a line before 7:00 which was steadily growing after I voted. Be warned though, the precinct at the recreation center was really warm and stinky.

In Santa Monica near SMC, had to wait 1 hour, starting at 7:15am. Polling place is a garage in a house, when there is an elementary school and a middle school one block away.

I have friends in the UK, and they don’t understand why we have long waits. It takes them much less time, and they typically have higher turnout than we do.

We had to wait over 30 minutes in Los Feliz at the CFI building (we walked over a little after 7am). I’ve never seen so many hipster tight pants and iPhones in line (that wasn’t leading to a concert venue).

There were about 100 people at the Senior Citizens’ Center on Melrose when we got there at 6:45a…and about twice that when we left 45 minutes later:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/slackmistress/sets/72157608651839807/

Y’all went at prime time. The low time is mid-morning / mid-day – if you can get off work to vote at that time.

In 2004 i believe i had a 10 minute wait in Hermosa Beach.

I’m off to vote now in Westchester, will post update.

My wife and I were 10th and 11th in a line of 25 when our Sunset Boulevard polling place opened in Silver Lake. We were done in minutes. No muss. No fuss.

Coming in to work this morning along Jefferson Boulevard through Jefferson Park, I passed two polling places, one near Arlington and one closer to La Brea, both had huge lines of voters queued up.

Amazing to see.

My polling place was Cheremoya Elementary School at the corner of Beachwood and Franklin. I arrived shortly after 8:00am, prepared to wait some time in line. During my 90 minute wait, several poll workers were constantly walking up and down the line, pulling out people from the green and yellow precinct, sending them directly to the front of the line. I’m from the orange precinct, as was the majority of the line. After the seventh or eight time a poll worker asked me, and the people in line around me, if any of us were from one of the two “fast-pass precincts”, I became annoyed. We are all voting at the same place. Everyone should have to wait in the same line.

I asked a poll worker, “Why do certain people get to cut to the front of the line?”

He responded, “Those people are from a different precinct.”

I then said, “We are all voting at the same polling location. Everyone should have to wait in line.”

His unapologetic, condescending response was, “They are not voting in the same place as you.” Not several moments later, he was escorting people into the same exact elementary school auditorium where I eventually cast my vote.

While all of this poll worker-sanctioned & assisted line-cutting was taking place, no one was stopping last-minute campaigners with signs and fliers or checking photographers and videographers for press credentials.

When I finished voting, the line was at least twice as long; easily a 3 hour wait at this point. I’m glad that I went as early as I planned. I’m also quite fortunate that I live within walking distance. I have no idea where any of these people are parking.

I got in line at my polling place at 710am in Sherman Oaks a block south of Ventura Blvd. Already had about 25-30 people in line, the wait was about 50 mins and worth every minute of it.

Once on my way to work I passed a church that had a line wrapped around the block and then passed a restaurant on Van Nuys that had at least 15 people waiting, Its happening!

OK- I cut in line: the husband and I went to our polling spot- a local Silver Lake park- around 9:00am. When we got there, there was a 200 or so person line out side the rec center!!!! We were going to leave and come back in the afternoon when we spotted a good freind/ neighbor the front of the line (she has asked I not I.D. her) we went up to her to talk. A few minents after we started talking to her, a poll worker anounced the next 10 people in line could go in the rec center to line up in there to wait to vote. The fellow counted out the 10 people, he counted the husband I as # 7 and 8. we did not intent to cut, it just turned out that way!!

BOO.

St. Jerome Parish on La Tijera. In line at 11:30 AM, out with sticker @ 12:05. On my way out, the line was slightly shorter. Best time to go!

There were 3 precincts, i was in Yellow. Yellow was the only one with a line at all. Green and Orange had no line. There is no reason to get mad at the poll worker volunteers for this — blame the registrar who allocated the voters in an un-balanced way. Since everyone has to vote with their own precinct’s ballots and booths, you can’t really combine lines.

-Ben

I vote at the church on Normandie and 5th in Wilshire Center. Four years ago I had to wait for maybe three or four people. Today there were at least 25 people ahead of me. I waited in line for half an hour, and was there for a total of about 45 minutes. It was AWESOME.

I just voted in South Pasadena. 20 minutes from leaving my desk at home, I had driven to the polling place, voted, come home and I’m back at my desk. No line at just after noon. I was going to take pictures, but I was in and out so fast there wasn’t really anything to photograph.

I’m a little concerned about a poll worker, though. She asked my name and I said, then spelled my first and last name for her. She couldn’t find me on the list. She was looking for my last name (Burns) under my first initial (M.) I spelled my last name for her (“B-U-R-N-S,”) and she said, “No, your last name.” I spelled it again. It took three tries to get her back to the Bs on the list. She still couldn’t find me. Three more times slowly spelling my name, and finally I found my own name on the list and pointed it out to her. She still seemed a little unsure if I was really the person I pointed to. I showed ID, and finally got my ballot.

The part that concerns me is that while I was voting someone else came in that she couldn’t find, and he was less adamant than I was. After only one attempt to find him she declared that he wasn’t on the list, but could vote with a provisional ballot. A provisional ballot is one of the best ways to make sure your vote will never be counted. How many other people could she not find? I don’t think she was doing this intentionally, but either way the result is the same.

I voted at the Hayward Hotel downtown today. Arrived at 10:35, walked out at 11:10. Not bad. Very orderly system, incredibly diverse bunch. The mood was elated and happy.

[...] in Marina del Rey tend to take place at a laid back, civilized, even sleepy, pace. Unlike Mack’s experience in Silver Lake, today’s voting in the Marina was no exception. Although I have vote by mail status, I showed [...]

I’m used to walking down my block to the school to vote. It’s usually just me and 30 or 40 other people who vote regularly. This time the books were full of crossed out names (people who voted) and the place was lively. Still I only had to wait a few minutes, mainly because there seemed to be problems finding the voters in the books on the correct pages.
The Registrar of Voters need to get their act together. They knew this would be a large turnout, so why are they unable to plan ahead? And it scares me that anyone can vote with NO ID. I can’t even rent a movie without ID, what’s up with that?