In the United States, another line can come before the election-day queue: voter registration. A 1948 NAACP photograph preserved by the Library of Congress shows African Americans waiting to register at Antioch Baptist Church.
In Selma, Alabama, during the 1960s, Black citizens also formed a long registration line outside the Dallas County Courthouse. Standing in it did not guarantee registration. Discriminatory examinations and administrative obstruction placed a barrier of time in front of the franchise.
An election queue usually suggests people approaching a ballot box. This line existed to gain eligibility to enter that later line. Democratic order began before polling day and could be shaped by the administrative decision of whom to keep waiting.