No Stupid Questions

Definitely, my situation would not be normal in Minneapolis, where I was born and grew up. There it was a little more chaotic, longer lines, but still not terrible.

Minnesota hasn't been one of those states desperately trying to keep people from voting, thankfully.

And we are trying to keep it that way.

You get even longer queues?

(Hey, non-Americans: "pubs" means "Republicans." Bars and pubs don't care whether we vote or not.)

As many have mentioned the real reason is to suppress votes by making the experience miserable.

The cover story for the rules is to prevent campaigns or other groups from "buying votes" by giving people in line food/water in exchange for a promise to vote for their candidate.

Murica.

This was literally the overarching plot for the last season of curb

https://youtu.be/dHIPXbLsY_Q?si=KG-IWg7GTeqQ8jiT

It's voter suppression. By limiting the number of voting locations and understanding them you make long lines where people will wait for hours to vote. By not allowing food or water to be handed out they hope people will get discouraged and leave the line. The official reason is that it could be construed as a bribe to vote a certain way.

Because the people making those rules don't want those people to vote. They figure, if it's that much of a hassle, they won't turn out. Meanwhile, in Republican-strong areas, they have multiple voting locations and very short lines.

Because certain people with power find it advantageous to make it difficult for the people in certain areas to vote. If you know that district isn't going to vote for you, and morality is a thing that happens to other people, you could make the polling place too small with too few workers.

To discourage people from voting. As was pointed out elsewhere, the Republicans only really flourish when a small number of people vote. So they make it as inconvenient as possible for people who are lower income, usually people of colour.

In contrast, in Oregon, we just vote by mail. Fill out you ballot at your leisure, drop it off in the mail box or ballot box by the due date, and you're set. Also the ballot boxes are all over the place. City Hall, the post office, the library, etc.

one of the two main parties knows that if 'everyone' voted, they would no longer hold any power whatsoever. so they actively prevent democracy by making it harder to vote.

It is Tuesday for some outdated reason that no longer matters and it is kept as a tradition because it conflicts with working days where minorities and other lower income folks will find it harderr to vote.

The lines are long in places where Republicans want to suppress the vote, by not providing enough staffing, minimizing voting stations, and throwing in other hurdles. They also oppose early voting snd mail in voting to make it harder for everyone to vote, because their angry voters are more likely to stick it out through those barriers.

I live in a Republican state that hasn't gone Dem for president since Nixon, and of course I have never waited more than 5 minutes in line and started voting early when that option was added. I don't vote Republican, but most of the people do so they haven't gone as malicious on voter suppression like in the states that have a chance of going Dem.