I waited in line for about 20 minutes at my polling place in Virginia this morning. Once I got to check-in, they asked if I wanted to vote on the electronic voting machine or with the paper Scan Tron ballot. There was absolutely no wait for paper, so that's what I chose. I completed the ballot (voted for Obama/Biden, Tim Kaine,and Kristin Cabral) and feed it into the Scan Tron machine. The polling place (an elementary school in Herndon) was definitely much more crowded than the two previous Presidential elections in which I voted there. My wife went to vote there a little while later after dropping the older kids off at school (she had the youngest with her, he's 18-months old), but she had to wait in line for over an hour, and then it got too close to when she needed to leave to go get our daughter at pre-school. So, so she had leave. She plans on going back later, but that means she'll have more kids in tow. Unfortunately, I have a bunch of meetings at work today, so I have to be here until the late afternoon.
It sounds like she experienced a similar issue to what I experienced, although my wait was only 20 minutes. Namely, if your last name begins with L-R (which ours does), you get to wait in a long line. If your last name starts with any other letter, you get to zip right on ahead to a much shorter line for check-in. Needless to say, my wife's text to me was ruing the fact that she assumed my surname. Ah, the joys of voting in a swing state...
1:54 PM PT: My wife went back with all four kids in two (ranging in age from 18 months to 7 years) to cast her ballot for President Obama, Time Kaine, and Kristin Cabral. Had to wait another 45 minutes with them acting like any kid would act when waiting in a long, boring line, but got the job done. Now that's dedication, and one of the reasons why I love my wife! She texted me a great pic of the four kids convening around an Obama/Kaine/Cabral sign just outside the polling location.