Trying to remember the times I voted in the general election.
The 26th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified July 1, 1971 -- just 100 days after being proposed in Congress. The Amendment lowered the legal voting age from 21 to 18. The age requirement had been 21 for the entire existence of the Constitution.
I first registered in high school when i was 18 -- spring of my senior. That was 1980, the first year Reagan was elected president. I was in college in Nov. i believe the polls were set up in the same building i went through drop-add in to change my class schedule once. No waiting line other than to check in and receive a ballot. Once that was done, waiting on a booth to mark the ballot in was super quick. Reagan won with 489 electoral votes to Carter's 49. Reagan won 44 states, and Carter won 6 + DC. I doubt there will ever be a bigger landslide than that!
Next would have been the year I graduated college: 1984. In Nov, I was in OK stationed at Tinker AFB. I was still a NC resident, so i voted by mail-in ballot. I was still stationed in OK in 1988, but I was in Saudi Arabia at election time. My ballot arrived while i was TDY, and my wife forwarded it to me on the weekly rotator C-141. I sent it back the next week in the rotator mail bag.
1992 was the year I separated from the service. I was in VA, and that was the year the lines to vote were super long. That was the year Ross Perot ran. He was the only Independent on a General election ticket who had any chance to win that I knew of. Bill Clinton won in large part to Perot syphoning off a lot of votes from the incumbent, GHW Bush. Since i was no longer on active duty and required to claim my domicile state as my legal state of residence, I wasn't able to vote via mail-in. Turn out was very high that year mainly because of Perot -- about 20M more voters than in 1980. i remember being in line for almost 3 hours. They weren't able to extend polling hours, but anyone in line before the scheduled poll closing was allowed to vote. i remember it was dark when i left the poll.
I moved to Hawaii in 1993, and i've voted here since. When i lived behind Mililani Safeway, we voted at the Rec Center near Uka Elementary. Around 2000, my polling place moved to Mililani HS as they started reducing the number of polling centers. Even after i moved nearer to H-2, it remained at the HS for at least 1 election, then moved to Kipapa Elementary.
I don't remember waiting more than about 45 minutes at any of the Mililani locations. Usually much less, like 15-30 minutes. Once you reached the check-in and were handed the ballot, marking and scanning took no time.
Now all my Mililani locations are shut down. Closest place to cast a ballot is the mail-in ballot drop box at the Mauka park & ride.
I've never considered any of my time in line to vote sufficient to deter me from exercising my right to vote. You know what they say about rights: use it or lose it.
There are very lazy voters. it's why ballot harvesting is so successful at increasing voter participation. I'm surprised they still report numbers for "voter turn-out" given the amount of mail-in ballots cast which don't require anyone to "turn out".