Long queues at polling stations on election day

The municipality: "Regrettable"

- That there are such long queues is of course regrettable, says Tordleif Hansson, investigator at the electoral office in Umeå.

How have there been such long queues?

- There are several reasons, for one thing we have the ballot system with large barriers that take up a lot of space.

According to Tordleif Hansson, everyone will be allowed to vote if they line up before 8 p.m.

Reports of long queues also come from Gothenburg. At Sannaskolan, a voter states that the queue at the polling station is upwards of two hours.

According to the City of Gothenburg's electoral office, queues of up to two hours are expected.

- We have not received reports from the electoral districts that there are any problems, but it is very much expected, says Ulrika Nandra, press communicator at the electoral office.

Calmer elsewhere

Anna Nyqvist, head of office at the Electoral Authority, says that the authority currently does not have a complete picture of the queue situation.

- In the vast majority of places there is no queue. But from too large a number, we get reports of long queues, she says.

According to Anna Nyqvist, one of the main reasons for the long queues is that there are two stations in the polling stations: one where you choose from ballot papers and one where you tick your vote.

- It is a logistics that takes a long time, she says.

She believes that the ballot system must be changed to reduce the risk of long queues. Among other things, the electoral authority has proposed to reduce the number of ballots by having all parties on one and the same ballot.

At the same time, there are reports from voters that the queues elsewhere are short or completely absent.

"In Strömmensberg in Gothenburg, there was no queue at all! It felt desolate!", writes a voter to SVT.

From Dikanäs in Vilhelmina municipality there are also reports of no queue at all. Other voters report waiting around ten to fifteen minutes.